Mt. Meru Hospital

Yesterday our class took a trip to Mt. Meru Hospital for our medicine course. Mt. Meru hospital is a public, government owned hospital located in Arusha. We met with the medical officer in charge and talked with him about the number of patients they see, the services they provide, and some of the challenges they face. Mt. Meru has a catchment population of 1.6 million people, but sees more because many citizens skip the lower level health centers and go right to the referral facilities. Because Mt. Meru is a public hospital, it receives much of its funding from the government. Many of the challenges it faces include under staffing, old and depleted infrastructure, shortage of supplies, and the difficulty of providing transport for patients. 

It was interesting to walk around the hospital and to see the different wards. We went to the labor and delivery ward, the  surgery ward, the outpatient clinic, and the medical ward. All of the patients that we met were nice, even if they didn't speak English very well. For a government owned hospital in a developing country, Mt. Meru was better than we expected. All of the wards are in different buildings, seperated by large lawns with flowering trees and the families of patients sitting in the grass. It was pretty crowded yesterday because it was the day that families could visit the patients. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the pediatric ward because it was relocated to a different facility a few years ago because of crowding. I would have really enjoyed seeing the pediatric facilities because I want to go into pediatrics. 

The old Children's Ward that is now the outpatient clinic

The TB and leprosy ward

One of two delivery rooms

The male surgery ward

The male surgery ward again, they were great!

The male medical ward

The X-ray machine for the hospital