Since the 15th June 2015, the surgical team from CHUK has started to move in different provincials hospitals to operate the patients who have a long term appointment. The purpose of this outreach program is to move towards the patients, operate them near their home and relatives and to decrease significantly the long waiting list of patients while they need to be helped quickly.
To initiate this program The University Teaching Hospital of Kigali was facing a serious problem of patients who would wait for a long time appointment to get operated.
Normally the doctors operate patients according to the appointment and to the pain they have. So, due to a big number of patients that CHUK would receive from other different hospitals day by day, More than 3000 patients had a problem of not being operated while they need the service.
To decrease significantly the long lasting CHUK surgical waiting list three sites have been utilized in outreach surgical program including Ruhengeri, Rwamagana and Ngoma Hospitals.
In its pilot phase in 2015, the Surgical team has operated all pending cases of patients in district or provincial hospitals including pathologies that cannot be operated outside CHUK for technical and logistic purposes.
At the end of the initiated special phase of surgical outreach program September 2015 the department of Surgery together with support services has spend 3 months of intensive surgical interventions where 2174 patients benefited proper treatment from Special Surgical program, 582 cases in remote areas and 974 cases at CHUK classed in Major operations of about 1556 and Minor operations 618.
The Surgical Outreach Program pilot phase closed officially with positive outcome of using minimum infrastructures and low staff but the result is big. Where about 17 patients were operated per day during the special surgical outreach program therefore CHUK decided to make a tradition of “Continuous Outreach Program”.
After Ruhengeri, Ngoma and Rwamagana Hospitals, since March 2018, SHYIRA Hospital is the new Eldorado to provide surgical interventions to patients near their homes at the junction of Ngororero-Nyabihu-Gakenke-Musanze and Rutsiro districts. To extend the Surgical Outreach health Facilities, coming soon is KINAZI Hospital in Ruhango District to serve the southern Province.
As long as the CHUK surgical team is dedicated to serve the population, some of them give testimonies: Tuyishime venantia the mother of a young boy who get operated by that surgical team said that she is very proud of the program. And that it is more helpful in terms of economy.
Again Mukashyaka Speciose appreciates the quality healthcare from the outreach program and thanks much Rwandan government for its good leadership. Whereas Nduwayo Jackson father of 2.5years boy suggest the implementation of the surgical outreach in all other hospitals as it is more and more helpful.
About 3 years of this surgical outreach program, that surgical team from CHUK is providing a service of orthopedic and general surgery in Kibungo hospital and Ruhengeri hospital. To prove the perfect of this program, the State Minister in Ministry of Health Dr Patric NDIMUBANZI visited those hospitals. According to the results of surgical outreach from the beginning it is more successful as the beneficiaries of this program moved from 2174 to 4948 beneficiaries.
After proving the effectiveness of this program, the initiated Special Surgical Outreach Program in its pilot phase , became “Continuous Surgical Outreach Program” to make it a success story at CHUK. The management of CHUK would like to inform the public that teams of Surgeons and Anesthesiologists will continue to work closely to make sure the Surgical Outreach Program come successful whenever it will be necessary.
By Pascal Mbuguje PRO CHUK