Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals - an audience with Dr. Beat Richner...

Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals

- an audience with Dr. Beat Richner...

• “Last year we hospitalised 80,000 children. We treated in the outpatients section 1 million children. These children have no other place in Cambodia to go if they are severely sick.”
• “We started in 1992 with 16 foreigners and 68 Cambodians. Today we have 2,100 Cambodian staff and only 2 permanent foreigners. This is a Cambodian hospital.”
• “The Kantha Bopha Hospitals are an island of peace here in Cambodia. Our infrastructure of justice is no corruption. We give correct salaries to all the staff. All treatment is free of charge.”
• “You have the international community, the governments in the western world and Tokyo with their experts in the health sector travelling around the world telling the poor world how they should practice medical care for their poor people. They preach their creed, especially the creed of the WHO in Geneva, which is that the medical facilities for diagnosis and treatment, and the standard of medicine and drugs, should correspond to the economic reality of the country. If we were to follow this creed we could not save one single case of dengue fever in shock. You need the same standards in the blood bank, the same standards in the laboratory as you have in the United States or in Europe. Otherwise you cannot administer the correct transfusion. Here it is even more dangerous than in the US or Europe because in our case we would contaminate each day 30 children with the HIV virus and 24 children with hepatitis. So you have to have the same standard.”
• “You have these international experts travelling around the world, health consultants, health advisors, health coordinators, health administrators, staying in a 5-star hotel in Siem Reap, where they pay $340 per night, then next day they arrive at our hospital, a Cambodian hospital, and they tell us that what we are doing here is too expensive, too sophisticated and does not correspond to the economic reality of the country. The average time for hospitalisation here is 5.5 days; the average cost per hospitalisation – not per night – is $240. And the experts paying $340 night are telling us that $240 to save a life is too expensive and does not correspond to the economic reality of Cambodia. But the economic reality of most Cambodians is zero.”
• “So you have this system of absurdity. If we followed the advice of the international community which travels the world telling people what to do, we could not save one single child infected with dengue fever or tuberculosis.”
• “When I got my first CT machine in Cambodia 10 years ago, there was an outcry from the WHO and Unicef. They said it was stupid to spend so much money on this machine. But you need a CT scan to diagnose and treat TB.”
• “In 2007 we had to hospitalise 22,000 children with dengue fever. In 2008 we had only 7,000 cases. But all of these children have to be treated. That’s why I ask the younger visitors for blood donations and the older visitors for money donations. So, blood or money: that is the question.”

Dr. Beat Richner plays Bach on the Cello and speaks about the activities of his children's hospitals in the concert hall at the Hospital Jayavarman VII in Siem Reap every Saturday 7:15 pm.

Dr. Beat Richner ('Beatocello') Beatocello was a well known entertainer in Switzerland – a singing clown who played the cello. Today the same man performs twice a week in his own concert hall in Siem Reap to raise money for his children’s hospitals. Swiss national, Dr. Beat Richner is the founder and acting head of the Kantha Bopha Foundation. Since 1991 the foundation has raised more than $370 million and built five children’s hospitals in Cambodia. The first one opened in Phnom Penh in 1992 with 16 foreign and 68 local staff. Today the hospitals employ just two permanent expatriates – Dr. Richner and biologist Dr. Denis Laurent – and 2,100 Cambodian staff. The Kantha Bopha hospitals provide free healthcare to 85 per cent of Cambodia’s children and operate at full capacity, admitting around 300 seriously ill children each day. The doctors perform 60 operations a day – 40 per cent of the surgical operations are cases of tuberculosis – treat 3,000 outpatients, provide 1,500 vaccinations, and deliver 50 babies a day at the maternity unit in Siem Reap. Eighty per cent of the $25 million annual running costs come from private Swiss donations, 10 per cent from the Swiss government and another 10 per cent from the Cambodian government through the Ministry of Health. Just 5 per cent of the annual budget is spent on administration. Richner’s task of running the hospitals and his constant solo quest for donations is overwhelming. Twice a week he performs to tourists in his hospital concert hall appealing for blood or money donations. He also travels back to Switzerland whenever he can to perform and spread the word. But with funding in short supply, the man who was once a musical clown is now singing for the life of Kantha Bopha. You can send a donation to: UBS Union Bank of Switzerland, CH-8032 Zurich. Account No. 838570.01Q. Attention: Kantha Bopha Foundation. Or donate online at: www.beat-richner.ch