Kenya takes over hospital for war victims from Sudan
June 30, 2006 (NAIROBI) — International aid agency ICRC on Friday handed over to Kenya the Lopiding Hospital, which was at one point the largest field hospital in the world with a peak capacity of 700 beds and provided southern Sudan with war surgery and emergency medical care for 19 years.
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC)-owned hospital, which has performed more than 60,000 operations in its 19-year history, located in Lokichoggio, northern part of the country, was handed over to Kenyan health ministry.
“At the height of the conflict in southern Sudan, this hospital close to the border with Sudan was help and hope for war-wounded civilians and soldiers,” the aid agency said in a statement issued on Friday.
The ICRC said the number of war victims admitted to the hospital began to decrease after the signing of the landmark peace agreement between the Khartoum government and southern rebels last year.
“This ICRC action may very well have been the largest and longest non-military cross-border air evacuation of casualties in history”, said Christopher Harnisch, ICRC Delegate General for Africa.
In response to changing needs, the ICRC said it would now step up its activities in the Juba Teaching Hospital, where it has been working since 1993 supporting surgical, medical and pediatric services as well as training medical staff.
It will continue to run as a sub-district hospital with a capacity of 150 beds to serve the community of the Turkana district whose leaders were consulted by the ICRC in the run-up to the handover to ensure that the ICRC’s legacy meets local needs.
“It was the best time in my entire professional life”, said Dr. George Kundert, a Swiss surgeon who served at Lopiding as a senior surgeon between 1997 and 1998.
It treated tens of thousands of Sudanese patients, approximately 95 percent of whom arrived at the hospital by air.
“In some cases people were evacuated from hundreds of kilometers away after days of being severely injured,”, said Serah Muthoni Gitigi, ICRC surgical nurse in Lopiding since 1993.
Nevertheless, the hospital, which had two operating theaters, an intensive care and high-dependency unit and ten wards, became a training center on war surgery for hundreds of health workers who later returned to southern Sudan or went on to use their skills in other countries.
By the end of May 2006, the medical staff at Lopiding had cared for nearly 38,000 patients and performed over 60,000 surgical operations.
(Xinhua/ST)