How Much It Cost To See A Doctor In Uganda
The average facility cost per outpatient visit ranged from 6,525 Ugandan shillings (Ushs)2 ($3)3 at health center IIs to 72,529 Ushs ($29) at private hospitals.
Births accounted for the highest facility cost per visit for nearly all facilities, ranging from an average of 58,037 Ushs ($23) at health center IIIs to 518,699 Ushs ($207) at referral hospitals.
Health center IVs were the exception for average cost per birth, such that the average facility cost per inpatient bed-day (157,876 Ushs [$63]) was more than twice the average cost of a birth (64,033 Ushs [$26]).
Health facility types in Uganda
National referral hospitals: These hospitals are intended to serve all Ugandans; act as referral centers for regional referral hospitals; and offer a full range of preventive and curative outpatient services, inpatient care, obstetrics and
gynecology, laboratory services, surgery, psychiatry, pathology, radiology, comprehensive specialist services, teaching, and research.
Regional referral hospitals: These hospitals are intended to serve catchment populations up to 2,000,000; act as referral centers for district hospitals; and offer a range of preventive and curative outpatient services, inpatient care, obstetrics and gynecology, laboratory services, a subset of specialty services (e.g., psychiatry, pathology, radiology), higher-level surgical and medical care than what is found at district hospitals, teaching, and research.
District hospitals: Also known as general hospitals, these hospitals are intended to serve catchment populations up to 500,000; support all referrals from health centers and lower levels of care; and offer a range of preventive and curative outpatient services, inpatient care, emergency surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, laboratory services, and other general services.
District hospitals also provide in-service training, consultation, and research on behalf of community-based health programs at lower levels of care.
Health center IVs: These facilities are intended to serve as the highest non-hospital referral facilities at the subdistrict level, or catchment populations around 100,000; and offer basic preventive and curative outpatient services, inpatient care, second-level referral services (e.g., life-saving medical, surgical, and obstetric services such as blood transfusions and caesarean sections), and physical base for district health teams.
Health center IIIs: These facilities are intended to serve catchment areas up to 20,000 (the sub-county level); provide supervision of and referral services to health center IIs under their management; and offer basic preventive and curative outpatient services and inpatient care (largely through general and maternity wards).
Many health center IIIs also provide laboratory services.
Health center IIs: These facilities are intended to serve as basic health centers and interfaces to the formal health sector for communities (populations of about 5,000), largely providing only outpatient care at most locations and an additional subset of services in places with poor access to health center IIIs and health center IVs.
An Enrolled Comprehensive Nurse posted at health center IIs provides the key linkage between village health teams and service provision.
Clinics: These facilities are privately owned and managed, largely dispensing medications to individuals for a fee.
Clinics also can provide basic outpatient services.
Do you have to pay for healthcare in Uganda?
In principle, Ugandans can get free health care at public clinics. In practice, government health centres are short of money, medicine and staff. The state accounts for only 15% of health spending, with another 42% coming from donor aid.
How much is an xray in Uganda?
A scan or x-ray in a private clinic costs between Shillings 20,000 to 50,000 in Soroti. Majority of patients, whose livelihood is based on subsistence farming, sell their animals or rent out a piece of their land to access the services.