Kantha Bopha Academy for Pediatrics - KBAP

Siem Reap Angkor, Kingdom of Cambodia

Purpose

The experience gained since 1992 from seventeen years of continuous pediatric activity in Cambodia and the results yielded by the ever-growing number of Kantha Bopha pediatric facilities, may be summarised as follows:

 

Determination in practising correct medical care, i.e. with the availability of proper diagnostic infrastructure and therapeutic means and avoiding corruption within the Kantha Bopha Hospitals under any circumstance, have consistently been and will remain the basic philosophy of our activity. Upon this basis and paired with a high degree of motivation and discipline, consistent medical success and human satisfaction resulted in efficient health care and the health preservation of thousands and thousands of Cambodian children. This also represents a substantial contribution to the peace process in a country suffering from the after-effects of three decades of warfare, poverty, morbidity, epidemics and continuing political instability.

Because of medical efficiency and economical effectiveness, both acknowleged by repeated official international inspections, the Kantha Bopha Academy of Pediatrics (KBAP) has recently been created. It aims at promoting its positive experience and creative know-how in other parts of the world with similar conditions and needs.

International postgraduate course for young physicians

The KBAP offers a six month intensive postgraduate course for young physicians of the ASEAN countries and Africa as well from other parts of the world. The course will include the following components:

A) Review of the spectrum of regular pediatric specialties given in weekly modules of five morning and five afternoon sessions by eminent visiting professors mainly from Swiss university children's hospitals.

 

B) Instruction in pediatric diseases characteristic of the poor Cambodian population. These pathological features are similar for all children living under poor and tropical conditions. The sessions will be scheduled daily and given by Cambodian professors attending the Kantha Bopha Hospitals.

 

C) Introduction into the philosophy of the Kantha Bopha project with its material and economical aspects and requirements will be part of the programme. Special sessions will be arranged to demonstrate how to conceive the infrastructure, logistics and management of a pediatric facility in an underprivileged country, including aspects of personal and equipment. This will include discussion of hygiene, safety and salary. The instruction will be given by professors and technicians from the Kantha Bopha hospitals.

 

D) Observation of daily medical inpatient and outpatient practice will be tutored by Cambodian doctors affiliated to the Kantha Bopha hospitals. Course participants in small groups will be able to take turns in the various divisions and gain first-hand experience of the medical activity.

 

E) In addition, practical introductions to ultrasonography, CT and MRI may be arranged.

Postgraduate course

The KBAP opens its international postgraduate course programme for young physicians.

International Postgraduate Course 2011, 31 October - 4 November - NEW

The secound course was held in November, 2010

The first course held in november 2009 had the following scientific program. More...

Core facts and figures of the KBAP

The Kantha Bopha project in Cambodia curently consists of five Children's Hospitals in Phnom Penh and in Siem Reap Angkor with a maternity annex in Siem Reap Angkor. Eighty five percent of all sick children in Cambodia receive their treatment free of charge in these facilities! The project was started with the Kantha Bopha I Hospital Phnom Penh in 1992. By 2008, the following average figures for daily medical treatment had been reached:

300 admissions of severely sick children,

60 surgical procedures,

3000 outpatients,

1500 vaccinations,

50 deliveries in the Siem Reap Angkor maternity ward, attached to the Jayavarman VII (Kantha Bopha III) Hospital aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

The Kantha Bopha I Hospital began operating in 1992 staffed by 16 European expatriates and 68 Cambodians. In 2008, the staff working in all Kantha Bopha hospitals numbered 2100 Cambodians (including 180 doctors) with only two permanent European expatriates. Since 1992/93, the mortality rate has been reduced from 5.4% to 0.75% in 2008.

 

The Conference and Teaching Center in Siem Reap Angkor includes 4 class rooms of 60 seats, two larger theaters of 200 and 650 seats, and a continuously updated medical library. This Center will be the heart of the KBAP.

 

The cost efficiency ratio of the Kantha Bopha hospitals has been shown repeatedly to be the best worldwide among 100 internationally rated pediatric projects in 40 developing countries. The integration of a maternity ward in the pediatric hospitals is the key to the highly successful neonatology work done there.

 

Thanks to "Western" diagnostic and therapeutic standards, including state-of-the-art imaging departments and laboratories, the Kantha Bopha hospitals are a unique enterprise functioning in a underprivileged country with a high concentration and combination of tropical diseases (dengue, malaria, typhus, JEV) and tuberculosis and including HIV/AIDS.

The key issue is correct infrastructure and management

The key to the proper and cost effective functioning of the Kantha Bopha hospitals as well as to their justice oriented health care is the correct infrastructure with total absence of corruption combined with the availability of medical care free of charge for every child. With the current annual running costs of 30 million US$ for all the Kantha Bopha hospitals including the Siem Reap Angkor maternity ward, the cost effectiveness attained has been shown to be unprecedented. Cambodia is a country of 14 million peolpe, 45% of whom are children. Eighty five percent of Cambodia's sick children receive their treatment through the Kantha Bopha hospitals.

 

Unfortunately, large amounts of money are spent onall continents without having any proper impact. According to experts' estimates, the annual budget of the WHO would allow150 Kantha Bopha - type facilities to operate with the capacity to treat the children of a population of 2.1 billion people. The question raised by these experts is: Where would the doctors come from? The KBAP intends to inspire and educate young doctors who might thus be motivated and prepared to take on such a more demanding humanitarian task.

 

The Kantha Bopha Philosophy and Political Statement

The Kantha Bopha philosophy and political stand are summarised in The Angkor Declaration of September 2003, first signed by His Majesty the King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk, contersigned by Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the ICRC and undersigned by many thousands of Cambodian citizens.

 

The Angkor Declaration--> (PDF)

 

Kantha Bopha Academa - Version to print (pdf)