Health rights activists in Uganda have welcomed a landmark court ruling that the government should increase its health budget to ensure women receive decent maternal healthcare services. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2011 over the deaths in childbirth of two women – Jennifer Anguko and Sylvia Nalubowa – in a public health facility. In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, a panel of five judges said the government needed to prioritise maternal healthcare in its budgets for the next two financial years. Health rights activists in Uganda have welcomed a landmark court ruling that the government should increase its health budget to ensure women receive decent maternal healthcare services. This year the government has allocated $590m for health, about 6% of the total national budget. Uganda is a signatory to the Abuja declaration, which requires governments to spend at least 15% of their annual budgets on health. Judges said the women died because of staff negligence and because the health centre lacked basic facilities to support them giving birth.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN