SFH is located in the district of Katete in Zambia’s Eastern Province. It is about 500 km to the north-east of Lusaka, near Zambia’s borders with Malawi and Mozambique. This is a five or six hour journey on the “luxury” coaches. SFH serves a local area with a 60-km radius containing about 160,000 people. However, SFH is also a referral centre for the entire Eastern Province, which comprises about 1.2 million people. Referrals include most surgery and more complicated medical problems such as the treatment of malignancies. 
SFH is now the largest mission hospital in Zambia. The hospital was founded in 1948 by the Anglican Church.  However, since 1983 the Anglican Church in Zambia and the Catholic Diocese of Chipata, Zambia have jointly managed the hospital. SFH also receives funding from the Zambian government and various overseas organisations. Patients must purchase an OPD (out-patients department) card costing a little more than $US 1. However, the treatment received by patients is largely charge-free. 

The hospital contains about 360 beds and cots. However this total is never a limit to the number of in-patients in the hospital, as space on the floor can always be found. The medical wards (St. Augustine for males, Santa Monica for females) each have about 40 beds. Each surgical ward (Kizito and Mukasa) contains 30 beds (with curtains!). The paediatrics ward, Mbusa, has about 80 beds. There is also a Tuberculosis ward, York, which has approximately 60 beds. Finally there is Bethlehem, the maternity ward with 35 beds, and the Special Care Baby Unit with 13 incubators and cots. The hospital also has laboratory and imaging facilities, as well as physiotherapy, dental, and ophthalmology departments. There is also an HIV/ AIDS counselling service on site. There are three operating rooms, and emergency surgery is performed around the clock. 

Within the Katete district there are fifteen Rural Health Centres. Clinical officers with some medical training, or nurses and midwives staff these centres. Each week, as part of the “outreach” programme, health workers from SFH (covering medicine, dentistry, ophthalmology, physiotherapy, and psychiatry) visit one or two of these village-based centres. 

SFH’s current medical workforce includes two paediatricians, a general surgeon, an obstetrician/ gynaecologist, and three other more junior doctors. Aside from the doctors, there are also a number of medical licentiates and clinical officers who function as interns. The rest of the health workers at SFH include nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians, physiotherapists, radiographers, and clinical officers specialising in dentistry, ophthalmology, psychology, and anaesthetics. 

SFH also serves as a teaching centre for Zambian health workers in training. The hospital contains a nursing and a midwifery school. SFH also receives clinical licentiate students, medical students, and junior doctors at different stages of their training. 

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