A 'proper home' for paediatric care
Life for a paediatric surgeon at Muhimbili National Hospital hasn’t always been easy.
Children requiring surgery in or around Tanzania’s capital often found themselves fighting for space at the operating table with adult patients, meaning that the paediatric surgeons working in Tanzania’s largest hospital were given only two days a week to operate.
“When I began working here in 2015, we were operating in the same space and with the same equipment as for adult patients. The two days in a week we had to operate paediatric cases was simply not enough. It caused a lot of long waiting lists for young children waiting on care,” explained Dr. Zaituni Bokhari, paediatric surgeon at MNH.
Thankfully, in September 2017, this all changed when KidsOR installed 2 brand new paediatric Operating Rooms, fully equipped with dedicated paediatric equipment, at the hospital.
“Since 2017 we’ve had these new theaters. You can imagine how our surgical output has now increased!”
Dr. Bokhari
However, it’s not just the access to the operating table and equipment that has helped improve the care Dr. Zaituni and her team are able to give to their patients. “Now we have a proper home. The decorations on the wall help to bring peace of mind to us surgeons, and serve as a reminder that we’re dealing with children. It also helps to comfort the children – they think it’s just like being in the playground!”
