Wau Teaching Hospital has no dialysis equipment, said a doctor working at the hospital. Medical Director Dr. Majok Malek Ruom told Radio Tamazuj that the hospital had recently received oxygen equipment but lacks other key machines.

“Renal unit is not available in the hospital, and this is very important, we are supposed to have it in this hospital,” he said. This equipment is used for treating kidney disease.

The hospital’s X-ray equipment was provided by the government of China. The mobile X-ray can scan limbs. It is too small to scan the abdomen well, said Dr. Majok.

However, the doctor said that the hospital is capable of offering oxygen to patients. “Oxygen is in the top of life-saving drugs,” he said.

Dr. Majok and Dr. Garang Dakjur Lueth of Wau Teaching Hospital recently completed a period of clinical attachment at Poole Hospital in the United Kingdom.

Wau Hospital is the only referral hospital serving the four states of Greater Bahr El Ghazal as well as part of Western Equatoria. Some patients at the hospital also come from Darfur or Abyei.

Cases frequently seen at the hospital include malaria, typhoid and diarrheal diseases, river blindness, tuberculosis and sometimes tuberculosis associated with HIV.

Photo by South Sudan Medical Journal Blog