Dr. Philemon Mateke the Former Regional Cooperation Minister of Uganda and a top Kisoro district NRM boss has said that the drug shortage at Kisoro district hospital should be addressed urgently.
His statement followed our story in which we broke the news of disgust by the locals who usually overwhelmingly support and vote NRM were threatening to vote the opposition in 2026 elections due to neglect at Kisoro government Hospital over drug shortage and claims of bribery by some staff.
He however wondered what the problem could be. ” Is there shortage of funds at the Ministry of Finance? Or there are procurement challenges at the National Medical Stores (NMS)?”Â
He asked the Managing Editor of Eastafricanwatch.net( Magara Darious) to move to NMS and Ministry of Health offices to find out the problem causing a shortage of drugs at Kisoro government hospital.
The Editor spoke to him in a telephone interview today and by press time the drugs had not been delivered to the Hospital.
Dr. Mateke moved to Kisoro some time back following being dropped from President Yoweri Museveni’s cabinet. But luckily enough his daughter Sarah Mateke was made a minister of state for Children and Youth.
The Kisoro hospital medical superintendent Dr. Emmanuel Bahane early this week said he is following up to make sure that National Medical Stores (NMS) makes delivery of drugs and necessary hospital supplies to them as soon as possible.
“I am calling the NMS contact they have been promising to deliver drugs ……
We are still waiting for the delivery of drugs from NMS” Dr. Bahane said in a telephone interview.
He earlier said they were coming to five months since they were given drugs by NMS.
Dr. Bahane said on average they carry out 150 surgical cases and 90 cesarean sections and that it is difficulty to make the operations without drugs.
Read; https://eastafricanwatch.net/kisoro-hospital-medical-crisis-to-affect-nrm-support/
Commenting on the issue of bribes being demanded by some of his staff he said they have put measures to stop the vice and have deployed security people who are doing intelligence on the matter and that he has also displayed his numbers on public noticeboards so that affected patients can report to him directly.
The locals are upbeat and are waiting for drugs to be supplied to the Hospital which is facing a lot of pressure due to its location as a border district to DR Congo and Rwanda.
NMS responds to the drug crisis at Kisoro  Hospital
“It is not true that we last delivered medicines to Kisoro hospital 5 months ago!
We delivered medicines for the lower health facilities in January 2024 while Kisoro hospital received their stock up to November and will be receiving more supplies soon. The delays in distribution were occasioned by the delayed release of operational funds for NMS by MOFPED as elaborated by the minister of health on the floor of parliament last year” a statement shared by Sheila Nduhukire the NMS Public relation boss.
