It is exactly 11am at Nyagatare hospital. The place is overcrowded by scores of residents who have endured a long trek in the a mid-day scotching sun, to seek medical treatment.

As the number of patients and their care givers increase, some of them squeeze each other under trees around the hospital gardens.

"There are no enough waiting yards where we can sit and wait for doctors. I have been here since morning waiting to meet the doctor to no avail,” narrates Simon Rwabukwisi, a Malaria patient lying near the consultation ward at the hospital.

Few meters along the consultation side, is a maternity ward. A long queue of pregnant mothers and their care givers has formed outside the ward.

There is a possibility of receiving or not receiving any medical service.

"She is very tired…nearly giving birth but we haven’t received any space in the ward. There are very many patients here, but hopefully we shall get admitted,” says one Uwera, who had accompanied her pregnant elder sister to the hospital.

On several occasions, residents from the district have criticized services the hospital offers to patients.

Some complain that negligence and carelessness of doctors and nurses at the hospital have led to avoidable and untimely loss of lives.

Amidst growing problems at the hospital, the governor of Eastern province, Odette Uwamariya in the company of other provincial officials paid a visit to the hospital to assess the situation.

"I too was shocked when I saw the living conditions especially in the maternity ward. Collective measures should be taken to solve all these issues,” observed the provincial governor.  

According to the hospital Director, Dr. Benon Rukunda, medical staff at the hospital have not, at any occasion, neglected or refused to attend to any patient seeking medical treatment.

"People say whatever they want…they criticize us on service delivery but we try our level best. The biggest pressing issue we have is lack of enough doctors and nurses to attend to a biggest number of patients we receive here.

We have many other problems like infrastructure that makes our services go slow. For instance, the hospital is running short of enough theatre. This is something that should be worked on with utmost urgency” Rukunda explains.

Formerly, it was a small hospital constructed to provide medical services to rice farmers under CODELVAM rice cooperative in early 1983.

After 28years, the hospital has 250 beds with only 9 professional doctors and 80 nurses. On a daily basis, hundreds of patients are transferred to the hospital from 20 health centres across the district and many others coming from neighbouring districts.

Number of patients per doctor

According to World Health Organization (WHO), at least one doctor should attend to 3000 patients.

However, according to Dr. Rukunda, one doctor attends to 4000 patients a month at Nyagatare hospital while a nurse attends to over 10, 000 patients.

Tthis means that the hospital has no capacity to admit over 400, 000 patients it receives every month.

Despite the huge influx of patients at the hospital, not all residents manage to visit the hospital due to lack of means for transport.

The hospital has only four ambulances that transport patients once they are given transfers from health centres.

"These ambulances are very few compared to the number of health centres we have. They cannot cover all of them and this makes it difficult… some residents suffer to get to the hospital,” says Dr. Rukunda.

Scovia Bamurange, a nurse at the hospital says: "We have a serious problem of ambulances here. Some mothers suffer miscarriage due to walking long distances to the hospital.”

Among other infrastructure problems the hospital faces is lack of a modern morgue.

"At the hospital, we expect one to be treated and go back home but also one can die at the hospital. We only have a small house that we call a mortuary but it doesn’t have a freezer,” says Dr. Rukunda.  dan. Ngabonziza@newtimes.co.rw