Medical Tourism Outflows from West Africa: A Policy Analysis of Impacts on Health System Strengthening in Uganda, 2021–2026

This policy analysis examines the influence of medical tourism outflows from West Africa on health system strengthening efforts in Uganda, from 2021 to 2024. It addresses the critical problem of whether reactive policies, designed to retain revenue and patients, genuinely remedy the systemic weaknesses that drive citizens to seek care abroad. The methodology employs a structured qualitative document analysis of Ugandan policy frameworks, including the Health Sector Development Plan 2020/21–2024/25 and related ministerial directives. This is integrated with a review of financial flow estimates and regional health indicators to assess policy coherence and outcomes. The central argument is that Uganda’s prevailing stance, which promotes domestic medical tourism to curb outflows, fails to address the fundamental deficits in specialised care, advanced technology, and human resources. Key findings demonstrate that without concomitant, substantial investment in tertiary infrastructure and specialist training, such an approach risks misallocating limited public resources towards a narrow, affluent clientele. This exacerbates existing inequities within the domestic health system. The significance of this study lies in its proposal for a paradigm shift: medical tourism trends should be reframed from a purely fiscal loss to a diagnostic tool. This reframing can pinpoint specific service gaps and guide more targeted, equitable investments to build resilient health systems for the entire population.