New law to regulate health facilities
By Our reporter
KAMPALA – Bukuya County Member of Parliament, Hon. Dr Michael Bukenya, has been granted leave by Parliament to introduce the Quality Health Care and Patient Safety Bill, 2026, which seeks to streamline mechanisms for the registration of health facilities.
In a motion moved on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, Bukenya said that while Uganda has several laws touching on public health, the regulation of health facilities remains fragmented and inadequate to guarantee quality care and patient safety.
He noted that the Public Health Act provides a general framework for disease prevention and sanitation, while the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, the Nurses and Midwives Act and the Allied Health Professionals Act establish professional councils that regulate health workers and register facilities within their specific professional mandates.
He said that despite the available policy frameworks, there is no comprehensive law that sets and enforces uniform standards for quality and patient safety across all health facilities, whether government, private-not-for-profit or private-for-profit.
According to Bukenya, because regulation is distributed among different statutory bodies based on professions and categories of health units, the country operates separate systems of registration, licensing, inspection and enforcement.
CAPTION: Bukuya County Member of Parliament, Hon. Dr Michael Bukenya addresses fellow legislators in Parliament on October 14th, 2026. (Courtesy Photo).
”The absence of a single regulatory body with a comprehensive mandate over health facilities has led to a fragmented regulatory framework, thereby limiting the establishment and enforcement of uniform requirements for registration and licensing, minimum standards for patient safety and quality-of-care,” he said, adding that, ‘patients are left without a clear and independent avenue for redress, and enforcement remains inconsistent’.
The Bill will centralise and harmonise the registration and licensing of all health facilities at national, regional, district and sub-county levels, and to establish the Quality Health Care and Patient Safety Authority as an independent body corporate to register, license, accredit, maintain a national register, inspect and enforce standards.
The Bill further seeks to prescribe minimum standards for quality healthcare and patient safety relating to staffing, medical equipment and clinical care, establish a regular and risk-based inspection regime, and create an independent patient-safety complaints and redress mechanism mandated to receive, investigate and determine complaints.
Ruhama County Representative, Hon. Beatrice Rwakimari, who seconded the motion, said that the Bill will address matters that goes beyond professional regulation. She said the quality and safety of healthcare is not merely a professional or administrative matter but is fundamentally about the protection of human life and the dignity of every person who seeks healthcare.
