| Bugando Medical Centre | |
| Org/Group: | Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Tanzania & Tanzania Ministry of Health and Social Welfare |
| Region: | Mwanza Region |
| Country: | Tanzania |
| Pushpin Map: | Tanzania |
| Coordinates: | -2.5281°N 32.9075°W |
| Healthcare: | Public |
| Type: | Tertiary, Referral, Teaching and Research |
| Specialty: | Includes Cancer Research |
| Affiliation: | Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences |
| Beds: | 950+ |
| Website: | Homepage |
| Wiki-Links: | List of hospitals in Tanzania |
Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) is a tertiary care medical facility owned by the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Tanzania. The hospital is operated in collaboration with the Tanzania Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The facility is located in the city of Mwanza, in Mwanza Region, along the southern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately 1114km (692miles), by road, north-west of Dar es Salaam, the financial capital and largest city in the country.[1] The geographical coordinates of the hospital are: 2°31'41.0"S, 32°54'27.0"E (Latitude:-2.528056; Longitude:32.907500).
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.
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.[2] 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.[3]
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.
As of 2017, BMC offered specialist services in the following clinical areas:[4]