RUNDU – The Rundu Intermediate Hospital on Monday welcomed their first group of 40 medical interns. 

The hospital, along with the Swakopmund Hospital in the Erongo region which also started with 40 interns, has recently been approved by the Health Professions Council of Namibia (HPCN) to provide practical training to medical interns. 

Five of those are from the University of Namibia’s (Unam) School of Medicine, while the rest are from institutions in Russia, Ukraine and China.

In the past, medical graduates who would take up internships were only admitted at Windhoek Central, Katutura, Onandjokwe Hospital at Oniipa in the Oshikoto region, and the Oshakati State Hospital in the Oshana region. “These are people who just graduated from various institutions, and are expected to fulfil a two-year internship programme which will polish them into competent doctors. 

That is the primary responsibility that we have been given. It will also relieve the hospital of the shortage of doctors that we have here, and maybe when they are done, some will be absorbed by the hospital,” said the hospital’s acting medical superintendent, Dr Medson Chibwe.

Dr Chibwe told New Era that the presence of the interns would also mean more care for patients at the intermediate hospital, which had a persistent backlog of doctors. 

“This will at least help us in that regard. The HPCN assessed us with what we have at the moment. They were satisfied, and gave us the green light to start training. Internships improve the academic aspect of the hospital. It encourages everyone, and improves the quality of medical care as a learning institution”, he added.

The Rundu Intermediate Hospital is supposed to have 20 specialist doctors in different departments, but at the moment they only have six. They are also supposed to have 32 medical doctors, but presently only have 20.