* Managed by QRCS in co-operation with EAA

The Hamad Bin Khalifa Hospital in Boutilimit, Mauritania, has issued its annual report on the medical activities and services offered during 2020 to improve the health conditions of the local communities of Boutilimit and neighbouring regions.

Operated and managed by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), under an MoU with Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, the hospital relies on its own resources and infrastructure with a workforce of 81 specialist physicians, nurses, assistants, social workers and administrative staff members.

Some activities were affected by the unexpected impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The overall budget of the hospital for 2020 amounted to $1,275,000. It has four medical divisions: outpatient, inpatient, technical and emergency. There are six outpatient clinics of internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, dermatology, general surgery, orthopaedics and dental medicine.

 

* Multiple activities

From January 1 to December 31, 2020, the eight-bed emergency department received 15,595 patients, including 12,339 multiple emergencies, 2,981 ob-gyn emergencies and 275 road traffic injuries. Performance indicators show that the hospital managed to achieve a main goal of reducing referrals to major hospitals in Nouakchott – no more than 67 referrals.

With its six rooms, the outpatient department offers GP services during weekdays, while other specialties are available on a basis of three clinics per week. Over the past year, the department served 41,459 patients, including 16,223 children, 8,932 male adults and 16,304 female adults. They are divided as follows: GP (22,497), general surgery (764), paediatrics (2,905), ob-gyn (1,327), dental (1,568), orthopaedics (1,784), pregnancy care (2,153), dermatology (4,316), internal medicine (2,185) and ophthalmology (1,960).

Currently, the hospital has a capacity of 62 beds in four recovery departments (internal, paediatrics, ob-gyn and general surgery). The reported year saw 4,759 inpatients with a total of 10,969 stay days. The bed occupancy rate was 57%, with an average of 2.3 stay days per patient.

As the hospital pays great attention to maternal and child health, the ob-gyn department supervised 1,531 births, including 263 C-sections, with a surgical intervention percentage of 17%. This is much less than national figures, reflecting the improved performance of the department, QRCS has said in a statement.

In the department of biotechnology, which consists of three fully equipped operating rooms, lab and medical imaging unit, it conducted 861 surgeries in the specialties of ob-gyn, orthopaedics and general surgery. Also, there were made 37,809 lab tests (average: 100 per day) and 6,251 medical images (average: 20 per day).

The hospital continued to provide training for the students of public health schools, such as the schools of public health in Rosso and Kiffa. Over the past 12 months, a new batch of 58 trainees was received. To ensure sustainability of professional capacity-building, the hospital took part in many training courses with other organisations and organised internship and field training programmes for nurses.

 

* Social Services

In relation to social care, the Social Affairs Department assisted 307 poor patients to get access to vital health services. Under a partnership agreement with the National Reproductive Health Programme, healthcare was given to 1,456 pregnant women across Boutilimit.

Since the beginning of 2019, the hospital has been engaged under the national health initiative to combat viral inflammations, by developing an automatic mechanism to vaccinate all newborns prior to discharge. Over six months, the new mechanism had a coverage rate of 100%.

There were public awareness interventions to promote preventive health practices in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. To protect the health workers, informative courses were held on the basic rules of prevention and what to do when dealing with a positive case. Also, tips and educational posters were put up everywhere on the hospital premises.

 

* The Hamad Bin Khalifa Hospital was established in 2007 under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, through the Qatari-Mauritanian Social Development Foundation, which is supervised by EAA.

It has a strategic goal of providing high-quality healthcare at affordable prices for the poor, to avoid the need to travel for treatment in Nouakchott or abroad.

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