The Hospital

Introduction

Kibogora Hospital is a rural hospital of 269 beds, located in southwest Rwanda on the shores of Lake Kivu. It serves a population of approximately 250,000 people. Kibogora is also a referral centre for 12 outlying health centres.

The hospital provides surgical, general medical, paediatric,  maternity and neonatal services,  with an extremely busy outpatient department. The support facilities include X- ray. laboratory, HIV/Aids testing, treatment facilities, dentistry, opthalmology, physiotherapy and family planning clinics.

An essential part of the life at Kibogora hospital are the servicies provided by the Social Affairs department and the Chaplaincy. These departments provide for the basic social and spiritual needs of patients and staff.

Rwanda is one of the poorest countries and has great health care needs. According to Rwanda’s Ministry of Health there is only one doctor for every 50,000 people and 103 children out of 1000 die before they reach the age of five.

Only 40% of the population have access to adequate health care. Malaria has been the biggest cause of illness and death. An ongoing health education program has reduced the incidence of malaria but it remains a major cause of death, particularly in children.

The first medical facility at Kibogora was a dispensary set up in the 1940’s by the Rev Frank Adamson and his wife Hazel, who were American missionaries. The growth of the hospital, in both buildings and facilities, occurred in the 1960’s when the late Dr Al Snyder was Medical Director at Kibogora. It is in very large part due to his efforts and the efforts of his support team that the hospital as we know it exists.

In 2011 the total number of staff at Kibogora was 216 including 12 Doctors, 97 nurses and 17 technicians. The hospital admitted 6312 patients and treated 23119 as outpatients. The maternity unit delivered 1628 babies, over 45% of which had complications. The laboratory conducted 96500 tests. There were 1998 major surgeries performed and 1064 minor surgeries. The bed occupancy was 70%.

The HIV/Aids unit at the hospital has treated 1918 patients since the programme started in 2006. Of these, 621 were transfered for treatment to the  health centres. The Health Centres are supported and supervised by the HIV/Aids team of Doctors and technicians from Kibogora Hospital.

There are currently 384 children in the community malnutrition program where they are supervised in their own homes. There are many hundreds of others treated at the health centres with only the most serious cases being transferred to Kibogora Hospital. Among the most serious cases are children with Aids related illnesses who are severly malnourished. Unless the child is well nourished the anti retroviral medications will not be effective.