Signing ceremony at Bugando marks two historic agreements
The Bugando leadership signed two highly anticipated agreements in a lively ceremony on May 3, attended by over 400 staff and students of both BUCHS and BMC.
The first agreement took the form of an affiliation agreement formalizing the relationship between Weill Cornell, BUCHS, New York Presbyterian Hospital and BMC. The affiliation was described in a recent Weill Cornell commencement address by Hunter R. Rawlings III, President Emeritus of Cornell University, as ‘… an unprecedented cooperative effort to improve health care in one of the most under-served nations in the world’.
Exchanges between the four institutions have already begun. Dr. Warren Johnson, chief of infectious diseases in the Department of Medicine, and Dr. Jeff Perlman, chief of pediatric neonatology, both visited Bugando within the last three months to assess needs and provide the dean of Weill Cornell, Tony Gotto, with recommendations on how Weill Cornell can be most helpful. Upcoming visits are scheduled for this fall, with a view to developing a plan for a permanent exchange program.
In the second agreement, the leadership of BMC and BUCHS embraced an official partnership that will be critical to the success of both institutions. The two institutions share a common chairman, Bishop Balina of Shinyanga, and have always worked together since the founding of the school in 2003. As the school grew, a formal agreement became necessary to create a structure that reflected the spirit of cooperation between the two institutions. Under the new agreement, all staff, equipment, facilities, and other resources will be shared without charge by both institutions – a marked difference from other institutions, where in one case students and staff must pass through security to move between the hospital and the medical school.
Each document was read out to the audience, translated to Kiswahili in the process, by Dr. Majinge and Professor Shija. Bugando chairman Bishop Balina said, in a heartfelt speech, that these agreements represented a reward for patience and a great step forward. ‘If you are patient, great things can happen,’ he said. Touch COO Angus O’Shea said that Touch is ‘...fortunate to work with such talented and motivated people at both BUCHS and BMC. We are pleased to see your two institutions supporting each other and growing together as evidenced by today’s ceremony’.
Both agreements were signed by Chairman Bishop Balina, Dr. Charles Majinge, Director of BMC and Professor Joseph Shija, Principal of BUCHS.