BUJUMBURA June 6th (ABP) – The two-week experience exchange work between the US Army Medical Delegation and the personnel of the Kamenge Military Hospital (HMK), MEDREX, was closed on Friday, June 2, 2023, by the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of National Defense and Veterans Affairs, Mr. Audace Nduwumusi.
Mr. Nduwumusi indicated that those exchanges of experiences were fruitful and friendly ties were forged. “For this exercise, the reports that have reached us say that the participants shared good practices and enriched each other”. It was added that the Ministry would like to congratulate the staff of the HMK and the medical delegation of the American army for the diligent work carried out together and in complementarity. Thus, he asked the HMK staff who participated in the exercise to keep the knowledge acquired and put it to the benefit of patients.
According to him, that exercise of exchange of experience allowed the delegation of the American army to discover the working conditions in a medical environment with limited logistical resources. The delegation realized that some pathologies are well managed but for others, the management is sometimes inadequate due to the lack of imaging means for diagnostic confirmation, he continued to say. In the context of friendly ties between the government of Burundi and that of the United States, scanner support at the HMK could be beneficial for that hospital and for the patients who request the service.
Mr. Nduwumusi also specified that the military hospital of Kamenge has the ambition to be competitive on a national, regional and international level. To do this, the implementation of its flagship projects such as the construction of the imaging and surgery building (BIC), the creation of a center for cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology, the construction of a military hospital bloc, the replacement of asbestos sheets, to name but a few, will enable it to achieve this, but will need the support of partners.
For his part, the Director General of the HMK, Dr. Marc Nimburanira, pointed out that this experience exchange exercise was conducted jointly by certain members of the staff of that hospital and a medical delegation from the American army, on the taking into care of patients in reanimation, in the operating room, in obstetrics and gynecology, maintenance of medical equipment and hygiene. “Similar drills were conducted at our hospital in 2013 and 2015 and were successful,” he added.
According to him, the military hospital of Kamenge is one of the reference hospitals of Burundi, which has ambitions to shine as well on the international level by acquiring more technical, tactical and material skills. He specified that this situation will make it possible to provide quality care as advocated in its motto: “A good welcome in a clean hospital for quality care”. To achieve this noble goal, the HMK must go through capacity building of its staff, the acquisition of appropriate equipment and an increase in infrastructure, he concluded.
For her part, Mrs. Mélanie Harris Higgins, Ambassador of the United States of America to Burundi, she indicated that “in a partnership, there is no one side that is better. Each brings useful experiences to the other.” For her, the collaboration between the Burundian national defense force and U.S. military medical providers and administrators demonstrates a collaborative learning experience for both parties.
The collaborative medical exercise, MEDREX, allowed for the exchange of best practices, procedures and techniques in a busy clinical environment. She has kept hope that this exchange of experience will be particularly useful for responding to and participating in the missions of the United Nations and the African Union.