Kampala — THE Government has allocated sh4b to Hassan Basajjabalaba's teaching hospital, the health state minister, Richard Nduhura, has said.

Chris Ahimbisibwe reports that Nduhura said the teaching hospital of Kampala International University - Western Campus, based in Ishaka, Bushenyi district, will receive the money this financial year. The funds had been provided for in the budget, he added.

Nduhura was on Sunday speaking at the burial of Lydia Byandemire, 38, in Ruhandagazi village in Bushenyi district.

Nduhura said some politicians had started a campaign against him, telling the public that he had failed to convince the ministry to support the hospital.

The money would be used for the purchase of medical equipment under a partnership between the university and the Government since the hospital operates a public patients' wing, he explained.

"We are already giving him medicines and other drugs to treat people. Since it is a teaching hospital, the students need to look at a variety of cases."

He noted that the university was Uganda's only privately-owned teaching hospital and it needed to be supported to train health workers.

In September 2006, Sunday Vision reported that the Government was paying salaries to medical lecturers at the university.

The administration said the Government had only pledged to provide 500 beds to the maternity and children's ward.

Nduhura also said the Government had allocated more funds to cater for non-communicable diseases such as cancer, which he said were on the increase.

"The Government has been fighting malaria and tuberculosis. But we have come to realise that even other diseases have become a problem. We have allocated funds to address that situation."