Dr. Justinian Ngaiza Visits Regional Hospitals

~Post by Dr. Justinian Ngaiza, co-founder

On this trip to Bukoba, Tanzania, close to where the site of the proposed clinic for EHI is, I was able to visit 3 of the major hospitals in the region: Ndolage, Rubya and Kagondo. During this visit I discovered some of the key obstacles for efficient functioning and delivery of quality healthcare. These include: insufficient funds; lack of essential equipment; poor variety of medications, especially antibiotics and an insufficient number of medical staff.

All the surrounding hospitals also lack a structured emergency department.

Despite these dire challenges I also noted that Rubya Hospital has a training school for paramedical cadres such as clinical assistants. At Kagondo hospital there is a regional orthopedic center where every month, two orthopedic surgeons from the neighboring referral university hospital stay for one week to carry out 15 to 20 surgeries a day. They also enable interested local physicians to participate in the surgeries. There is also a center for designing and building limb prosthetics for amputees.

The challenges are vast, but the hope and drive to provide adequate healthcare to the community is already there. At EHI our work will be to capitalize on these strengths in order to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare throughout the region.