Ecunha — The municipal hospital in Ecunha, central Huambo province, needs at least 15 doctors specialising in intensive care, paediatrics, anaesthesiologists and intensivists to improve the quality of medical care for the population.

The recently inaugurated health unit has 214 workers, including 28 doctors, three of whom are family medicine doctors and seven specialists in obstetrics gynaecology and general surgery, four of whom are expatriates and three Angolans.

The information was given to ANGOP on Tuesday by the director of Ecunha Municipal Hospital, Américo Eiuba, who said that the reinforcement of doctors will make it possible to make the most of all the modern equipment made available to improve the quality of patient care.

Américo Eiuba said that all the specialities are working fully and he plans to start elective operations soon, with a view to decongesting Huambo General Hospital, which currently has a high number of patients on its waiting list.

He said that the health unit, which opened on 11 January, carries out two to four emergency operations a day on average, mainly in obstetrics and gynaecology.

So far, he said, it has carried out 2,000 different analyses, including biochemical, haematological and blood quality control, mainly on patients admitted to various sections.

He recalled that the municipality's largest hospital unit, named after the former administrator of the municipality of Ecunha, Leonardo Kambumba, with a capacity to treat 56 patients a day, has so far carried out 95 X-rays and 62 ultrasounds, including abdominal and obstetric gynaecological scans.

Since it opened, the hospital has treated a total of 465 patients, most of them with malaria, respiratory diseases and acute diarrhoea.

The municipality of Ecunha, one of the 11 that make up Huambo province, has an estimated population of 111,825 inhabitants, spread across the communes of Quipeio and Sede. JSV/ALH/DAN