Indian firm to set up surgery centre of excellence in Rwanda

Sunrise Group of Hospitals, a specialized consultative care and treatment centre and widely recognized as a pioneer in Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgeries, plans to set up a centre of excellence in Rwanda. 

Laparoscopy, also known as keyhole surgery or minimally invasive surgery, is a type of surgical procedure that allows a surgeon to access the inner part of a patient’s body without having to make large incisions in the skin. 

The procedure has minimal post-operative discomfort since the incisions are much smaller, quicker recovery times, less pain and bleeding after operation, shorter hospital stays, and much smaller scars compared to standard open surgery. 

The health group has branches in India and United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Maldives and is specialized in Minimally Invasive Surgery which has been accredited worldwide.

It provides procedures in all branches of medicine  and accommodates 40 specialities like accidents and emergencies, Laparoscopy, Gynaecology Thoracoscopy (the inspection and treatment of lungs and chest cavity), oncology (cancer study and treatment).   

In an interview with Sunday Times, Anshul Nanda, Financial Director for Sunrise Group of Hospitals, spoke of the group’s healthcare technology and its interest in setting up a centre of excellence that will serve not only Rwandans, but the entire East African population. 

Anshul has been in Rwanda since August 22, in the framework of India-Rwanda Innovation Growth Programme, and participating in the Kigali International Fair. 

Below are the excerpts:        How does the laparoscopic or endoscopic surgery work?  

It is basically a keyhole surgery. If we have to remove the gallbladder or if we have to remove the uterus of a lady because of the problem that they have, or if we have to do joint surgery for the knee of the shoulder, there are two ways to do that: You have to remove the part in case of cancer, and you have to open it (the body) up.

Our technology consists of making keyhole or small incisions, and you put in a camera, and instruments. And from inside, our doctors are highly trained and skilled to do operations through the keyhole only.  What benefits does it have compared to normal (open up surgery)? The advantages for the keyhole surgery are that a patient will walk out of the hospital the next day (soon). Because in surgery, you do not need to be in a hospital because of a surgery; [rather] you need to be in hospital because that wound that has been cut has to heal. You could have multiple complications such as infection when you cut the skin.

The best part of this type of surgery is that there is no problem to the patient in terms of complications, in terms of infection.  So, how does it help? One, you are recovering very fast, and you are able to work again, which benefits the economy.  The cost of surgery is very quick and very fast; hospitals can do more surgeries. 

In our hospital, only very few surgeries are not performed through laparoscopy.  The only time we open the patient is to do the caesarian to deliver the baby.  How many surgeries have you (the hospital) performed through such (keyhole surgery) technique so far? More than 200,000. There is one doctor, Dr. Hafeez Rahman, [at our hospital] who has carried out 100,000. He is one of the fathers of laparoscopy in the world. He has been doing it for about 30 years. Now, he has trained a lot of doctors. That (laparoscopy) is the future of surgery for people to be able to heal and go to work after two days. 

We are innovators, we innovate new surgeries every time.

Our group is training a lot of doctors worldwide, and they are now doing this laparoscopy.  You said you want to bring and invest in such technology in Rwanda how could it impact lives? What we are doing now, we are trying to tie up to local hospitals to bring the technology to them, train them; and our doctors will come here in Rwanda and do the surgery. 

Today, in Rwanda, you don’t have expertise because a lot of patients go to India, China, and Germany. So, what is happening is that a lot of money is going out of Rwanda. So, when the people of Rwanda are going to do the surgeries locally, the economy is going to grow.

Not only that, if it (the centre) is set up here, it going to be a centre of excellence not only for Rwanda, but for the whole of East Africa. It is going to generate tourism, it is going to generate revenues, because all the people in East Africa are going to India, Thailand, Dubai, Germany, US.

The advantages if we do it here, a patient will have a family support, which cannot be possible, say, when a patient goes to US for treatment because you cannot take your whole family. 

So it is much easier and cheaper for people of Rwanda. When you fly, you take your ticket, you go and stay in a hotel, and of course it is expensive. 

So, here we will do it at a better cost, and on top of that, in Rwanda, you have [health] insurance. When you go to other countries, you have to pay in cash. But here, we will use insurance, plus some additional cost for expertise. But part of that is going to be [covered by] insurance. That is advantage. 

So, we are going to train a lot of people, a lot of doctors to build the capabilities.  How much does the surgery cost?  The average cost is over $3,000 (about Rwf3 million) in India, and about 7 million if a patient comes to Dubai for surgery. That cost does not include flight cost. 

But in Rwanda, the surgery can be about Rwf1 million. And, if the insurance intervenes, the patient will pay far less. [In Rwanda, insurance covers about 80 percent of the cost of treatment.] How much do you think you can invest in the start? If it is an existing hospital, it (the investment) is almost zero, very minimal. It is done by expertise rather than the technology. Instruments are there, but it is not the instruments that matter, it is technologies and expertise. 

But, if there is investment required, I don’t think there is too much of limitation for us. For the existing hospitals, we can bring in technologies for the surgery.  But if it is required, and the government tells us to set up a hospital, it can be $20 million. 

We will come up with a lot of technology, MRI machine -medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body in both health and disease, heart attack treatment machine, among others.

We want to set up one big centre of excellence for laparoscopy in Rwanda, and everybody from Africa will come here.  When do you think the Centre of excellence for such treatment can begin? If someone is interested, we can tie up now and start next month, immediately. But, we need somebody to work with us. If somebody is interested to work with us, they have to get license for our doctors, and we will help them to build infrastructures.