Bwindi Community Hospital Child Healthcare

About Bwindi Community Hospital

Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH) is located in the village of Buhoma close to the northern entrance of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, providing health care to some of the poorest people in the world. In this area malnutrition, malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and diarrhoea are the biggest killers.

The Hospital started life as a weekly outreach clinic conducted under a tree but has now grown to a permanent presence providing different levels of health care to different patients. People from nearby areas use the Hospital for everything – outpatient clinics, delivery of babies, vaccinations, treatment of TB and admission to the wards for when they become seriously ill. Altogether, BCH is relied upon by more than 35,000 people in Kayonza and Mpungu sub-counties of the Kanungu District but it is an especially important place to the Batwa Pygmies who are specifically targeted by a variety of outreach and development projects. Having developed a reputation for high quality services, BCH also attracts people with more complex problems from further away, often travelling for many days by foot for treatment.

BCH is in the process of achieving full hospital status from the Ugandan authorities. You can read more about its hopes and plans for the future at www.bchc.ug.

Child Healthcare - The Eurochange Charity Involvement

There is no national health service in Uganda as we know it and, although the costs involved may appear relatively very minor, some of the poorest families in this marginalised society cannot afford to pay for required treatment. Consequently, many sick children are not seen early enough to prevent their illnesses becoming much worse

Over the last year, The Eurochange Charity has supported the introduction of a new child healthcare initiative at BCH called the Child Healthcare Access Programme (CHAP). The scheme is aimed, primarily, at providing outpatient and inpatient consultation and treatment for children under five years of age within the hospital's catchment area at minimal cost and, for the very poorest families, free of charge. It is hoped that the programme can be extended at some point to children of other age groups who have chronic diseases or who may need hospitalisation.

There is no doubt that CHAP has been an overwhelming success in its aims and, by April 2010, BCH expects to have registered around 8,000 children under the age of five years who will be eligible to use the services of the hospital. After just the first year of the programme, BCH has seen a 400% increase in children using the outpatients department and a 500% increase in admissions.

The Eurochange Charity will continue to provide support CHAP for a further limited period but, ultimately, the programme will form the basis of a Microcare health insurance scheme which will ensure available and affordable access to healthcare well into the future.