Outside the operating theatre at Beit CURE Hospital.

When you walk around the Beit CURE Hospital, the one thing that goes through your mind is that this place is constantly buzzing.  Children playing, recovering patients going for walks, mothers and fathers chatting with their kids, and staff running from building to building.  The one thing that stands out, however, is the construction taking place at the north end of the hospital.  The operating theatre at Beit CURE Hospital is in the process of being renovated and expanded to accommodate the increase in the amount of patients coming to Beit CURE for surgery.

The Beit CURE Hospital theatre hosts an average of 1,400 surgeries a year—that’s almost four surgeries per day!  And, with the new ENT (ears, nose and throat) clinic up and running, Peter Kyalo, executive director for the Beit CURE Hospital, expects that number to increase dramatically over the next year or two.

For all the fans of ER and other medical dramas, I actually had the opportunity to see two real-life surgeries taking place in the quietly busy Operating Theatre.  I watched Dr. Kachinga Sichizya, the consultant neurosurgeon, repair the spine of an infant, and I sneaked in to see the tail end of an orthopedic surgery being performed by Dr. Giorgio, Beit CURE’s medical director.  Pretty cool stuff if you ask me!

As “cool” as all of this was, Beit CURE’s Operating Theatre was in dire need of a facelift and an expansion.  You see, there are actually three operating theatres in the building being renovated.  The two larger theatres are used for neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, respectively.  The smaller theatre was being used for surgeries of patients with highly infectious diseases and some ENT.

The first problem was there was an increase in the number of patients with these types of conditions needing surgery, and the medical staff did not want to have these patients operated on in the two larger theatres already being used for neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery.  The second problem was that the aforementioned new ENT department also needed a space for patients needing surgery.

Thanks to a €180,000 ($231,000 USD) donation from Irish Aid and substantial donations from CBM, ENT Trust for Zambia and Gorta, Beit CURE Hospital has been able to renovate, expand and buy new, cutting edge equipment for the Operating Theatre.   The renovations are almost complete, and the Operating Theatre should be fully operational (pardon the pun) in the next two weeks.

“The newly renovated theatre will allow the hospital to be more efficient and function at an expanded capacity so that the neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery theatres can be left on their own,” said Kyalo.  Big things happening at Beit CURE.  Literally.