The executive director of UCI, Dr Jackson Orem says that the cancer institute is equally constrained and needs additional space for its cancer patients whose numbers are steadily increasing. 

Dr John Omagino, the executive director of UHI says that they have submitted a request to government for the construction of a 200-bed capacity facility with three catheter laboratories and three operating rooms. The facility will also have 15 beds in their intensive care unit (ICU).

At the moment, the hospital only has one operating room, three beds in ICU and 17 beds in their inpatient facility. The limited space according to doctors has led to many deaths at the hospital. 

 
“We had a 12-bedded ICU complete – it was handed over to Mulago for rehabilitation with the hope that it will be handed back, better after two years. Today it is four years, it has not come back. Four years! Four years down the road, Cancer Institute has also grown and it needs its space. So on my desk, I have an eviction order” Omagino said. 

Omagino says if government cannot afford to give them the money they need, the institute should be allowed to take a $70 million (about Shs 250bn) commercial loan that will be paid back in seven years. 
 
UHI receives more than 60 patients on a weekly basis. Annually 500 pediatric cases and 1000 adult cases need surgery.

 
But according to Dr Michael Oketcho, a consultant cardiovascular surgeon at UHI, only 100 children can be helped because they have a long waiting list.
 
“We receive probably 300 patients every year who require surgery and every year we do about 100 utmost. As of now, our waiting list is over one year. So if a patient comes today and wants to join the queue for surgery here, it will take them a year for them to get operated. So in the process we lose many patients.” said Dr Oketcho. 
 
Last year, a government report by the ministry of Public Service proposed a merger of UCI and UHI in order to reduce duplication of work by agencies and ministries. But Dr Omagino says the merger of the two is erroneous because they carry out highly specialized work in different fields.
 
“The threat of the merger, that one is not a threat anymore, you cannot merge something at the status of a university with that one at the status of a primary or senior secondary school. The issue of autonomy, the institute should be facilitated to get even more administrative and financial autonomy for us to be more competitive. Anything added, will be adding a layer of inefficiency and it will delay our processes and delay our ability to achieve our mandate of becoming a centre of excellence in the region and referring patients abroad.” said Dr Omagino.