--- title: Hospital Shows Rwanda's Health Care Successes | TIME description: Rwanda has made drastic improvements in health care thanks to new hospitals and a grassroots approach. But even the best facilities have limitations canonical: https://time.com/video/EME7U0Lh/ og:title: Hospital Shows Rwanda's Health Care Successes og:description: Rwanda has made drastic improvements in health care thanks to new hospitals and a grassroots approach. But even the best facilities have limitations og:url: https://time.com/video/EME7U0Lh/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EME7U0Lh/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hospital Shows Rwanda's Health Care Successes twitter:description: Rwanda has made drastic improvements in health care thanks to new hospitals and a grassroots approach. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Hospital Shows Rwanda's Health Care Successes [Watch (HLS stream): Hospital Shows Rwanda's Health Care Successes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EME7U0Lh.m3u8) (6:56)  _Published 2012-03-28. Rwanda has made drastic improvements in health care thanks to new hospitals and a grassroots approach. But even the best facilities have limitations_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:22 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How a Hospital Drone Delivery Service is Saving Lives in Rwanda](/video/cRNsMd5n/) ### How a Hospital Drone Delivery Service is Saving Lives in Rwanda [The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches](/video/B9BBJqnq/) ### The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches [Rwanda's Cinema Under the Stars](/video/lA1uU3ah/) ### Rwanda's Cinema Under the Stars --- ## Transcript He has sad respiratory distress. At a hospital in Northern Rwanda one of Doctor Alexander Vingrads newborn patients struggles to breathe. [ SOUND ] She needs an X- ray to pin down why. So this baby's going to X- ray right now. The very fact that there is an X- ray machine in this poverty stricken area is remarkable. To the local people it's even more remarkable that this hospital was built for them at all. There was one doctor in this entire area [ UNKNOWN ] a district of 400, 000 people there was no hospital here. Amid these farm fields, this new public hospital, opened January 2011. And it's been turning heads and inspiring new ideas. Even outside of Rwanda, as a model for new ways to bring healthcare to the poor. When the hospital was first built, the local population did think it was a hotel. They couldn't believe that this was actually a hospital for patients. [ SOUND ] It's so beautiful that in addition to the medicines I think people feel, feel taken care of as well. The Butaro Hospital's unique design and approach was shaped by Paul Farmer's Partners in Health. The organization work closely with the Rwandan government and the Clinton Foundation. I'm sorry. Partners in Health hired Dr. Vinagren on a two year contract. I did my residency at Boston, and I've been here in Rwanda for the past year and a half. As the only pediatric specialist in the entire region, the doctor sees almost daily, cases where a child's life is on the line. [ INAUDIBLE ], what do you think? The X- ray results of the newborn are in. Dr. Vinigrath reviews it with Dr. Jerrion Regine a Rwandan colleague. So, it looks like this baby has a pneumonia. I think this baby will respond to antibiotics. He just will need both observation. What I like to do is divide up the plan by problems. So what will we do for the pneumonia? We currently have 11 general practitioners working here. And with Partners in Health, they've brought in five specialist positions working here and our job is to accompany the local doctors, teach other physicians and nurses how to improve the quality of care that they provide and hopefully have some sustainable impact on the people here. [ SOUND ] [ FOREIGN ] Prior to the hospital's temporary clinic of 2008, mothers in need of emergency cesareans had no surgical rooms to turn to. Many mothers and newborns died. Now that's been dramatically changed. In the NICU currently we have Six neonates right now, three of them, I'm sure if this hospital had not been standing would not have survived. But the hospital is only the visible top of the system. The roots extend across the villages. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] Our local community health workers, they are among the 2, 500 health workers in this district alone that Partners in Health trained in a partnership with the health ministry. [ NOISE ] There are two in every village who work and live there. They make regular home visits to those with HIV or tubercolosis. [ NOISE ] They look out for expectant mothers at risk, and for signs of malnourished children. Rwanda's grassroots approach has helped its surprising transformation from the tragic past of its 1994 genocide, to current success story. I think Rwanda has done an amazing job with health care. I think they've really improved the health statistics over the past five to ten years. According to recent World Health Organization figures, Rwanda has cut the rate of killers like malaria and tuberculosis by more than 50 %. Infant mortality's been slashed to less than half. Maternal deaths reduced by over 75 %, and the vast majority 95 % of 11, 000, 000 Rwandans have healthcare insurance under an inexpensive government plan. [ CROSSTALK ] outside to show you their pictures of the before. [ FOREIGN ] He's a 14 year old who was diagnosed, with diabetic in cirrhosis, so he came in in a coma, and he survived and he looks great right now. But now he's a 14 year old living with Type I diabetes in rural Rwanda. Cases like [ INAUDIBLE ] usually call for specialists, but in Rwanda doctors are few, and specialists rare. I think I'm constantly challenged here. In the United States, I worked at Children Hospital Boston. Right next door to the Dana Farber, next door to the Brigham, where thousands of doctors in, in like three square block. And you name any specialists and we will call them and they would come and see the patient. Here, there's five specialists positions and eleven GP's trying to care for a district of 400, 000 people. Okay, what do you want to do with the insulin? And that leaves some cases simply beyond their limits. Oh my gosh, what happened with this child? I'm a little worried about why he's missing his eye, but I guess we'll get there. Anita? He's Samuel, three years old. Oh, I know this kid, I heard about him by email. So, he had a cancer of his eyeball. Retinoblastoma. Yeah. That's a mass, so this is actually, there's metastasis right there, that's a mass, that's a mass, Do you know the prognosis. Death, he'll die. Hazarding an inexperienced guess, I would say a month, or less. Oh, this makes me so sad. [ SOUND ] Hey sweetheart. [ FOREIGN ] Hey. [ SOUND ] Following a series of infant deaths in the past week, Samuel's situation hits especially hard. [ SOUND ] It's seeing things that you know, if you had the right tools and the right people around you, you could, you could do something different. In here, you do your best. Sometimes you know in your heart of hearts that there's nothing more you could do. But other times, you wish you knew more. But for each child who can't be saved, there are hundreds who have been. [ LAUGH ] Woah! She looks so good. [ FOREIGN ] [ LAUGH ] Oh my gosh. From Butaro, Rwanda this is Ed Robins for Time video and the International Reporting Project. 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