Dr. Butera, State Minister for Health, highlighted some of the ambitious targets Rwanda has set to improve surgical care.
Rwanda is set to roll out key training and capacity building programmes that will not only improve access to surgical care locally, but also save the country millions spent seeking surgical care and treatment abroad, in what is expected to be an ambitious initiative to boost the healthcare system.
This was revealed by Dr. Yvan Butera, Minister of State for Health, speaking at the closing of the Pan-African Surgical Conference (PASC2025), on Friday, at Kigali Serena Hotel, which brought together surgeons, policy and decisionmakers from across the continent and the globe, to discuss ways of addressing gaps in access surgical care on the continent.
Dr. Butera said that one of the key areas Rwanda is focusing on to reduce mortality, is surgery, pointing out that today the country still loses people and children born with congenital abnormalities, yet these can easily be addressed by surgery, emphasising that what Rwanda is doing aligns with what was discussed over the four day conference.
“In terms of access and how can surgery can bridge the gap, using an example of Rwanda, when you look at the three main reason why we are still losing people, limited access to surgical care was among them and if you see what we have done with Operation Smile, surgery has a key role to play in bridging the gap,” Dr. Butera said, thanking the organisation for its role in improving surgical care in Rwanda.
Participants at PASC 2025 committed to work towards addressing the urgent gaps in surgical care on the continent.
The State Minister for Health said that Rwanda is doing a number of things to improve access to surgical care, among them decentralizing residence services in neonatology, OBGYN and others, which can be accessed in 10 more hospital, in addition the four already existing referral hospitals.
“We are trying to reduce deaths as much as we can. Our next target is going to be surgery where we want to train as many specialists as we can, so that surgical services can be accessed in many hospitals as possible,” he said, adding that there is no reason a person or child should die because they cannot access surgery when they need it.
Among other things, he said the government is work to improve access to surgical care during the golden hour, or emergencies, where people need immediate life saving surgery, such as heart attacks, accidents and other emergencies which require immediate surgical attention.
“The second part where we still losing people is emergency cases, a large chunk of it related to not being able to access surgery during that vital golden hour. We have a lot of trauma cases that we end up still losing people and emergencies such as cardiac events and that is where we are trying to bridge the gap,” Dr. Butera said.
He pointed out that while the Rwandan government has done a lot to improve emergency care services, challenges remain in regarding to being able to access emergency surgical services, adding that they are currently looking at a multifaceted approach where these services can be obtained where the incidents happen immediately.
For instance, he said that while ambulances are readily available, it becomes tricky for an accident victim to immediately access surgery, for example if they had accident in a remote part of the country, adding that what the government is doing is to address the last mile challenges by decentralizing services, where people can be rushed to a nearby hospital and they are given a lifesaving surgery immediately.
Beyond life saving and emergency surgeries, the State Minister said that Rwanda is currently investing in equipment and capacity building to ensure that even the complex care, which people often travel to seek abroad, is obtained locally, including complex surgeries such as transplants.
Dr. Billy Magee, chief medical officer at Operation Smile, speaks at the closing ceremony.
He pointed out that so far kidney transplants which people used to travel abroad to access can now be conducted in Rwanda, along with cardiac surgery, which is also available locally, as well as oncology and other care services which Rwandans previously sought in countries like India, Turkey, South Africa, Belgium and others.
Dr. Butera said this year, Rwanda is launching the first cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Rwanda (UR), alongside other advanced medical training programmes, specifically for surgeons, being offered in different universities, all aimed at improving Rwanda’s healthcare system.
A call to action
The four-day conference ended with a call to action to improve equitable access to surgical care on the African continent, starting right from the communities at the grassroots, as one of the sure ways to bridge the gaps that exist, by ensuring that people don’t have to travel long distances to seek surgical care that is not complex.
It is a challenge many African countries are still grappling with. On Rwanda’s part, Dr. Butera said that the Government of Rwanda is working to ensure that most of these services that are not of complex nature, can be accessed in district hospitals, without people having to travel to Kigali.
The five day conference, which was officially opened by Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente, featured key topics and speakers, with an aim of addressing the urgent crisis the African continent is facing.
By 2030, the African continent will face a shortage of 6 million surgical care providers, leaving millions without access to life-saving procedures.
During the conference co-organised by Operation Smile and the Ministry of Health, together with the University of Rwanda, and the Rwanda Surgical Society, participants discussed how this urgent gap can be addressed.
The conference, themed “Building Resilient and Sustainable Surgical Services in Africa: A Surgeon in Every District Hospital”, brought together surgeons, policy experts, researchers, and other key stakeholders globally to discuss this critical shortage of surgical professionals and how it can be addressed before it is too late.
In his opening address, Dr. Ngirente stressed the importance of the gathering, which he said came at a timely moment, when the continent is working to strengthening its healthcare systems, in the wake of global challenges of which the continent bears the heaviest brunt.
He said the gathering in Kigali served as a platform to find solutions to the urgent challenges in surgical care, workforce development, and innovation to transform healthcare across Africa, highlighting some of the things Rwanda is doing to develop the healthcare workforce, including surgeons.
As the delegates departed from Kigali, it marked the conclusion of a transformative week filled with collaboration, knowledge-sharing and innovation, but above all, a commitment to reinforce and strengthen systems, and an ambitious goal to ensure that there is a surgeon in every district hospital.
