Bugando Medical Centre

The facility is located in the city of Mwanza, in Mwanza Region, along the southern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately 1,114 kilometres (692 mi), by road, north-west of Dar es Salaam, the financial capital and largest city in the country.[2] The geographical coordinates of the hospital are: 2°31'41.0"S, 32°54'27.0"E (Latitude:-2.528056; Longitude:32.907500).[3]

BMC is a tertiary referral, research, teaching center and cancer treatment hospital affiliated with the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences. BMC's inpatient bed capacity is 950, spanning a wide range of medical and surgical specialties. The hospital employs over 1,300 staff.[1]

In Tanzania, an estimated 35,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2014, of whom about 21,000 (60 percent) died that same year. The country has only two cancer hospitals, the main one, Ocean Road Cancer Institute, is located in the financial capital, Dar es Salaam. The cancer unit at Bugando Medical Centre is the second and only other public cancer treatment centre to cater for the estimated 58 million Tanzania's citizens.[4] In February 2021 a total of TSh1.34 billion (approx. US$580,000) was raised at the hospital as part of funding to expand and modernize the facility. When completed the Bugando Cancer Centre, will have capacity to attend to 120 patients on a daily basis.[5]

This hospital was built by the Catholic Church between 1968 and 1977. It was officially opened on 3 November 1971, by Tanzania's founding president, Julius Nyerere. In 1972 the Hospital was nationalized by the Government. However, 13 years later, it was handed back to the Catholic Church in Tanzania, with the understanding that the hospital be run as a regional referral hospital for the Lake Zone, spanning 8 of Tanzania's 31 regions (total population 14 million in 2017), with the collaboration of the Government of Tanzania.[1]

As of 2017, BMC offered specialist services in the following clinical areas:[6]

• Ophthalmology
• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Urology
• General Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Cardiology
• Gastroentology
• Nephrology
• Endocrinology
• Infectious Diseases (including HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis)
• Dermatology
• Internal Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• Critical Care
• Pain Management
• General Paediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Oncology (Cancer Care)
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiotherapy.

• List of hospitals in Tanzania

• Website of Bugando Medical Centre
• White Paper of The Foundatuion for Cancer Care In Tanzania As of 2015.