Our impact

The Health Department

A county-sized hospital at Mapuordit, a primary health care centre in Rumbek, a second centre run by the Loreto Sisters, and the outreach teams that carry antenatal care and immunisation out to the communities around them.

At a glance

What the department runs

Figures drawn from the department’s own description of its facilities.

3

Health facilities

Mary Immaculate Hospital at Mapuordit, the Primary Health Care Centre in Rumbek, and Loreto PHCC.

111

Beds at Mapuordit

Across maternity, paediatric, medical, isolation and surgical departments.

2,500

Patients a month in Rumbek

Treated at the Primary Health Care Centre.

92

Permanent staff

At Mary Immaculate, of whom 11 are expatriates, alongside 24 part-time and trainee staff.

48

Nursing students

Boarding at the nursing training centre at Mary Immaculate.

2002

Mary Immaculate founded

It remains the largest and best-equipped hospital in the region.

The facilities

Where the care is given

The Health Department is one of the four departments of the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek, with its headquarters at Bethany House in Nairobi and its facilities across Lakes State.

Founded in 2002, and the largest and best-equipped hospital in the region.

A county-sized hospital of 111 beds, with an operating theatre on 24-hour standby. Alongside the wards stand an outpatient facility, a laboratory, a pharmacy, a radiology department, an ANC and EPI clinic, kitchens, dormitories, an office suite and a nursing training centre boarding 48 students.

It employs 92 permanent staff, of whom 11 are expatriates, and 24 part-time and trainee staff. A weekly outreach team carries antenatal care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and childhood immunisation into the communities of the catchment area.

Departments and services

Maternity, paediatric, medical, isolation and surgical departments
An operating theatre on 24-hour standby
Laboratory, pharmacy and radiology
An outpatient department, and an ANC and EPI clinic
A referral centre for HIV care — VCT, PMTCT and ART
A leprosy and tuberculosis clinic
Nutritional support for vulnerable patients
A nursing training centre for 48 boarding students

A busy centre treating around 2,500 patients a month.

The most common conditions treated are malaria, skin infections, respiratory diseases, typhoid fever, urinary tract infections and diarrhoea.

Also offered here

HIV testing and counselling
The Expanded Programme on Immunization
An Emergency Feeding Programme for malnourished children
Health education workshops on personal hygiene
Care for cuts and wounds
Caring for the environment, and preventing communicable disease

The second primary health care centre of the diocese, staffed and run by the Loreto Sisters.

Much of the department’s work happens outside a clinic building.

The diocese works closely with a wide range of religious communities to promote health in the community: resolving marital disputes, providing shelter for abused women and girls, supporting people affected by leprosy, and running hostels for vulnerable girls.

In the wards and the field

The work, photographed

Staff at Mary Mard PHCC, run by the Loreto Sisters

The Health Department

What the department runs

Where the care is given

Mary Immaculate Hospital

Primary Health Care Centre

Loreto PHCC

Health in the community

The work, photographed

Letters from Rumbek