Bwindi Community Hospital is situated in the northern part of Bwindi’s impenetrable forest park in the Buhoma sector within the southwestern part of Uganda. The hospital began with only one doctor sitting under a tree and offering free health services. This hospital was founded in 2003 by Scot and Carol Kellermann. It was upgraded into a hospital within the year 2008 once they built another operating room.
The hospital began with a mission to assist the Batwa pygmy people who were displaced from Bwindi’s impenetrable forest park, which had been their home for many years. After a short time, the hospital found itself treating people from everywhere in the world and even beyond.
Bwindi Community Hospital, Batwa (pygmy) Support
The Bwindi Community Hospital has greatly improved in recent years, becoming a 112-bed hospital serving over 100,000 people; therefore, the hospital has been considered one of the simplest within the Sub-Saharan region. The hospital has been rated the simplest performing hospital in Uganda by the Ugandan Protestant Medical Bureau.
Best Medical Center in Uganda
The church is an Anglican church under the Kiinkizi diocese staffed by over 100 workers, with 70% being from the world around the hospital and 30% from other parts of the country. The hospital laboratory has been ranked as the best in southwestern Uganda by Star Southwest, an NGO fighting HIV in southwestern Uganda.
The sustainability of all times gardens at the hospital provides patients and staff with food while training communities on nutrition, sanitation, and sustainable agriculture. Bwindi Community Hospital was also acknowledged in 2013 by public opinion in Uganda for its contribution towards attaining Millennium Development Goals.
Accessibility to Bwindi Community Hospital
The most vital part of their mission is a belief that each person has equal rights to access health care. The hospital sends different teams to surrounding villages seven days every week; they also opened a satellite in a Batwa settlement called Byumba. Cases of malaria dropped from 23.2% in 2006 to 13.5% in 2011. OPD attendance has also grown by 85% in 3 years. 2018 won an award from UPMB for leading in innovation and use of technology in nursing education in Uganda.
2018 won an award from UPBM for innovatively growing community health insurance and being the overall best performer in the timely compilation and submission of quality reports and good monitoring and evaluation practices. Several other health facilities from across the country continue to learn from Bwindi about innovations and best practices to help improve care in their region.
For the last ten years, Bwindi Community Hospital has been ranked among the best-performing health facilities in Uganda, according to the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau.
