BY S KWAGALA
The Director of China-Uganda Friendship Hospital, in Naguru, Dr.Emmanuel Tugaineyo has decried the inclusion of the name China on the hospital, saying this has alienated the hospital from receiving support from western donors.
Tugaineyo added that China is inadequate concerning donations because the Chinese Government mostly provides the hospital with acupuncture needles and gloves only.
He said: “The name China-Uganda Friendship hospital have alienated us from implementing partners, you know the people who wouldn’t want to put their money where that name and yet they are the main funders and implementing partners and yet Government feels the Chinese are helping us and yet they don’t. what they bring us in kind usually contain acupuncture needles, gloves, things like that.”
Dr.Tugaineyo made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee where he had appeared to defend the 2024/25 national budget, and noted that the nomenclature to the hospital has isolated it from the main financial partners from the west who prefer not to associate their money with anything to do with China.
Uganda’s health care system is largely dependent om external funding , with pressing demands for resources from the already constrained national budget ,Tugaineyo thought change of name could help.
Followers of parliamentary discussions on social media have blamed the government for its donor mentality for a period long over due.