That government spent Shs 1 billion to send eight government officials abroad for medical treatment is preposterous.

The question is, who qualifies for medical treatment abroad? Is it only high ranking government officials, their families and cronies? We have had several desperate and life-threatening cases afflicting ordinary citizens and government never came to their rescue. For instance, a little girl from Masaka Aisha Nabukera was burnt and needed to travel abroad to correct her skin but there was no money for her.

Government didn't help. Several Ugandans have been turned away from Mulago, the national referral hospital, for lack of money - sometimes as little as Shs 50,000. Yet ministers' siblings and spouses have been bailed out of problems that require a lot of money but would have cost less if they were handled here.

Like one expert said, it is not that Uganda does not have the expertise to handle some of these cases; it is lack of equipment and facilities that have rendered these doctors and their patients helpless. For instance, we have trained cardiologists who could carry out complicated heart surgeries; some of them have often flown to India to do the same job, but they cannot perform that work here because there are no facilities.

Indeed, some evidence has shown that even those taken to sophisticated facilities against the recommendation of our local doctors, die there. Why does government find it prudent to lavish our taxes on a few individuals and leave the rest to die? Some hospitals don't have basic things like surgical blades and gloves, cotton wool, ambulances, theatres.

Strangely, most of the people who benefit from these decisions don't even pay taxes. It's decisions like these that make Ugandans skeptical about the proposed national health insurance fund. Will government fly out every insured patient who can't get the treatment from Uganda? Impossible! Like a medical expert said, if this money that was spent on just a few individuals was saved for two months it would be enough to build local medical capacity.

Ugandans -peasants, workers or middle class - should be able to access good health services at all times regardless of their financial capabilities. And indeed the government can afford this -but only if it sorts out its priorities.