Residents of Ngoma District and neighbouring areas will no longer have to travel long distances to seek surgical care following the opening of modern intensive care unit (ICU) rooms and operation theatres at Kibungo Level Two Teaching Hospital. According to officials, the new facilities will ease pressure on referral hospitals and expand access to specialised surgical care in Eastern Province. Health ministry officials and representatives of Operation Smile Rwanda commissioned the 10-bed ICU and four operating theatres worth over Rwf500 million on Friday, March 19. With better infrastructure and equipment, we can deliver safe surgery closer to patients and reduce the financial burden of travel,” said Dr Jean Claude Munyemana, the Director General at Kibungo Hospital. Health officials said the expansion will strengthen district-level capacity and bring life-saving care closer to communities. Faustin Ntirenganya, a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at University of Rwanda and Director of the Global Surgery Research Hub, said the expansion tackles key system constraints. “You cannot scale surgery without training spaces and operating theatres,” Ntirenganya said. “When you increase theatres, you increase the number of patients treated. At CHUK hospital, patients wait at least 12 months just for consultation, and we currently have around 3,000 patients on the surgical waiting list.” He said expanding district-level infrastructure will cut waiting times and strengthen clinical training. “This system allows us to train the next generation of surgeons while extending safe surgery beyond referral hospitals,” he said. Andrew Karima, Country Director for Operation Smile Rwanda, said the organisation is working with teaching hospitals and residency programmes to ensure medical talent remains within the national health system. “We are building a sustainable model by investing in local training and infrastructure,” Karima said. “Through our hub-and-spoke network, we are strengthening referral systems and expanding access to safe surgery closer to where patients live.” Under this model, two hub hospitals in Kigali and six spoke hospitals—Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Kibuye, Bushenge, Rwinkwavu, and Kibungo—are receiving targeted support aligned with Operation 100 standards. At Kibungo Hospital, where more than 60,000 patients are treated annually, the impact is has started to benefit patients. Egide Mbarushimana had a motorcycle accident that left him with a severe leg burn that failed to heal after multiple procedures. “I had several operations, but there were no signs of healing,” he said. “I was referred to Kibungo Hospital, where doctors performed reconstructive surgery, and now I have started to see real improvement.” To address existing gaps, the government is expanding surgical services beyond referral hospitals while investing in training and retention of health professionals. Jean Marie Vianney Ndayizigiye, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, said the new facility in at Kibungo Hospital will bring services closer to patients while strengthening hands-on training for medical students. He said the government is scaling community-based care by deploying more nurses, empowering community health workers and expanding the training of doctors and specialists. “All these efforts aim to achieve our ‘4 by 4’ target and ensure universal access to quality healthcare,” he said, referring to the ministry's target to increase health workers by times by 2029. Rwanda currently has 226 surgeons in training and about 1,000 undergraduate students in the pipeline, but experts say retaining skilled professionals will be critical to ensuring equitable distribution of care. Despite ongoing investment, demand continues to outpace capacity. Rwanda performs about 1,788 surgical procedures per 100,000 people and has about one operating room per 100,000 population—well below the recommended minimum of five.
