Uganda Has One Licensed Doctor for Every 6,400 People, Figures Show

Uganda has 7,871 doctors with active licences for the 2026 practice year, translating to roughly one licensed doctor for every 6,400 people, according to new figures from the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC).

The figures come as the country's population is projected to surpass 50 million by the end of 2026, raising questions about whether the available medical workforce can keep pace with growing demand for healthcare.

UMDPC data shows that 10,951 doctors are registered with the council, but only 7,871 have active licences to practise in 2026.

Meanwhile, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics projects the country's population at 50,256,600 by the end of the year.

This puts the ratio at approximately one actively licensed doctor for every 6,385 people, or about 15.7 doctors for every 100,000 people.

The figure, however, does not mean that all 7,871 doctors are available to serve patients in government hospitals.

Doctors work across public and private health facilities, specialised institutions, academia, research and other sectors, while some may be outside the country.

The number of licensed doctors therefore provides an indication of the country's potential medical workforce, rather than the number of doctors available at the bedside in public health facilities.

The challenge is compounded by the uneven distribution of doctors across the country.

A doctor working in Kampala, for example, does not provide the same level of access to a patient in Karamoja, West Nile or rural Bundibugyo.

The availability of other health professionals, including nurses, midwives, pharmacists and laboratory personnel, as well as medicines, equipment and functioning health facilities, also determines how effectively the health system can respond to patients' needs.

Uganda's 2024 national population census put the country's population at 45.9 million. With the population expected to grow beyond 50 million this year, demand for healthcare is also increasing, from maternal and child health services to emergency care, surgery, infectious disease treatment and management of non-communicable diseases.

The pressure is particularly evident in public hospitals, where staffing shortages can leave health workers attending to large numbers of patients.

The shortage has also featured prominently in the ongoing dispute between the government and medical interns.

Medical interns are not fully licensed independent practitioners, but they form an important part of the supervised clinical workforce in hospitals as they complete their training.

The government deployed 2,417 medical interns for the 2026/27 internship year, but many have not reported to their assigned facilities.

The interns have raised concerns over welfare, allowances and the government's new internship policy, while the Ministry of Health has maintained that those deployed should report to their training centres.

The dispute has consequently drawn attention to the wider question of the capacity of Uganda's health system and the number of health workers required to serve a rapidly growing population.

The bigger question

The UMDPC figures show that Uganda has a sizeable pool of trained doctors, but the gap between registration and active licensing highlights one part of the workforce challenge.

Of the 10,951 doctors registered with the council, 3,080 do not have active licences for the 2026 practice year.

The figures alone do not establish why individual doctors do not have active licences, nor do they show how many of the licensed doctors are practising in Uganda or working directly with patients.

What they do show is that the country's medical workforce must be considered alongside population growth, geographical distribution, retention of health workers and the availability of other essential health professionals.

For a population projected to exceed 50 million, one actively licensed doctor for every roughly 6,400 people remains a significant challenge, particularly where doctors and other health workers are concentrated in urban areas.

The issue, therefore, is not simply how many doctors Uganda has on paper, but how many are practising, where they are located and whether patients can access them when they need care.

Read the original article on Nile Post.