The Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital in Boutilimit, Mauritania, has issued its annual report on the medical activities and services implemented for the benefit of local communities in Boutilimit and neighboring regions during 2023.
Over the past year, the hospital provided about 99,000 diverse medical services, including general/specialized consultations, surgeries, obstetrics, laboratory tests, radiology, and pharmaceutical prescriptions.
Operated by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Education Above All (EAA), the hospital relies on its own resources and infrastructure, with a workforce of 81 specialist physicians, nurses, assistants, social workers, and administrative staff.
To meet the hospital's everyday needs, some worn-out medical and nonmedical equipment was replaced, and there were maintenance works and repairs at some departments and facilities.
The overall budget of the hospital for 2023 amounted to $1,880,660. It has four medical divisions: outpatient, inpatient, technical, and emergency. There are seven outpatient clinics of internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, general surgery, orthopedics, dental medicine, and ENT.
From 1 January to 31 December 2023, the 8-bed emergency department received 24,591 patients, including 18,036 multiple emergencies, 6,107 Ob-Gyn emergencies, and 448 road traffic injuries. Performance indicators show that the hospital managed to achieve a main goal of minimizing referrals to major hospitals in Nouakchott – just 84 referrals.
With its six rooms, the outpatient department offers GP services during weekdays, while other specialties are available on a basis of four clinics minimum per week. Over the past year, the department served 46,808 patients, including 18,286 children, 10,086 male adults, and 18,436 female adults. They are divided as follows: GP (30,622), general surgery (725), pediatrics (2,617), Ob-Gyn (1,600), orthopedics (1,127), pregnancy care (2,196), dermatology (3,769), internal medicine (2,476), ophthalmology (1,553), and ENT (123).
Currently, the hospital has a capacity of 54 beds in four recovery departments (internal medicine, pediatrics, Ob-Gyn, and general surgery). The reported year recorded 5,625 inpatients with a total of 12,800 stay days. The bed occupancy rate was 65.84%, with an average of 2.28 stay days per patient.
As the hospital pays great attention to maternal and child health, the Ob-Gyn department supervised 1,768 births, including 379 C-sections, with a surgical intervention percentage of 20%.
In the department of biotechnology, which consists of three fully equipped operating rooms, lab, and medical imaging unit, it conducted 976 surgeries in the specialties of general surgery, Ob-Gyn, orthopedics, and ENT. Also, there were made 37,770 lab tests (average: 104 per day) and 6,140 medical images (average: 17 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 and the National Higher School for Health Sciences in Nouakchott. Over the past 12 months, a new batch of 34 trainees was received. To ensure sustainability of professional capacity-building, the hospital took part in many conferences and training workshops with other organizations and organized internship and field training programs for nurses.
In relation to social care, the Social Affairs Department assisted 786 poor patients to get access to vital health services. Under a partnership agreement with the National Reproductive Health Program, health care was given to 2,206 pregnant women across Boutilimit.
Established in 2007, the Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital is supervised and funded by EAA, which seeks to change the world by providing education opportunities for marginalized children and youths, believing that education is the best way out of poverty, towards just and peaceful communities that unleash the full potential of every child and youth. Also, education is a fundamental right for all children and one of the key pillars of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It pursues the strategic goal of providing high-quality health care at affordable prices for the poor, to avoid the need to travel for treatment in Nouakchott or abroad.