Nyagatare District is set to inaugurate a new Rwf4billion Gatunda Hospital by the end of this fiscal yearafter two years of construction.

Nyagatare, which is the largest district in the country has 14 sectors and a population of around 700,000 population but had only one hospital.

Officials and residents told Sunday Times that the new facility will boost health services not only in Nyagatare district but the Eastern Province as well.

Nyagatare District Mayor Claudian Mushabe, said: "We do not know the exact date of inauguration but we are in the last stages of the construction process.”

"After completion there is the process of acquiring equipment, but what we are certain about is that by the end of the current fiscal year, the hospital will be complete,” he added.

The district officials estimate that the hospital will serve about 400,000 people from the sectors of Gatunda, Kiyombe, Karama, Mimuri, Mukama, and some parts of Rukomo.

Elia Kamanzi, Nyagatare District Health Director, announced that it is expected that by June this year, this hospital will be operating.

"The first advantage of the new hospital is that the number of people going to Nyagatare town will decrease; Nyagatare is the most populated district, yet it has only one hospital, and this affected service delivery at the hospital,” he explained.

He added that when one is serving a large number of people, it is not easy to provide good services as they should, however, Kamanzi insisted that they were not providing poor services at Nyagatare Hospital.

Jean de Dieu Bavugirije, a 54-year old resident in Bushara Cell, Karama Sector, said they will be "relieved” to have such health facility close to them.

"There are patients who are transferred to Nyagatare, some cases of pregnant mothers transferred for delivery, this was hard for the patients’ families,” he underscored.

"Besides, delivering food to them was hard, the transport was expensive, but we can reach the new hospital on foot,” he added.

Before going to Nyagatare Hospital, the patients normally go to health centres in their respective sectors. The district also has a health post in every cell.

Gatunda Hospital is one of the infrastructures that President Kagame pledged to Nyagatare people when he visited them some years ago.