Ecuador's Only Christian Hospital Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Wednesday Oct. 12th 2005, Ecuador’s only Christian hospital celebrated 50 years of ministering to the souls and bodies of Ecuadorians.

|PIC1|Vozandes Hospital in Quito, Ecuador commemorated its 50th anniversary on Oct. 12. The HCJB hospital, with 76 beds including 7 intensive care beds, serves as a trauma care centre and offers a wide range of practices from ophthalmology to family practice.

“Our hospital here in Quito is amazing because it really speaks to us of God’s faithfulness through the years,” said Sheila Leech, HCJB Health Care Director for the Latin American Region on HCJB World radio on Oct.4.

“The hospital started out as a very small clinic, born in the hearts and minds of the missionaries who came here. We have just seen how God has blessed and continues to bless and call the ministry to grow. So we have what is really a flagship ministry after 50 years of one of the finest hospital here in the city of Quito.”

Vozandes Hospital is unique in Ecuador for its emphasis on sharing the Gospel with patients and healing the spirit alongside providing physical care and treating the body. Leech said the staffs are very “mindful” of offering holistic care to its patients and not losing sight that its ultimate goal is to bring people to Christ.

“We are the only hospital in the country offering Christ-centred holistic care to the people of Ecuador. Attending to their spiritual needs as well as their physical and emotional needs,” said Leech. “We are looking at the person as a whole person and not just a body to be healed.”

“The hospital [has] 11 chaplains on staff...and so we do make sure that every single one of our patients gets visited by the chaplaincy service every single day.”

|TOP|In addition, to providing holistic care, Vozandes is also distinguished from other hospitals for its charity fund. In the last two to three years, Ecuador has shut down its free health care system and now people have to stand in long lines at government hospitals and pay a small consultation fee. Moreover, patients are responsible for supplying all materials necessary for a surgery, such as gloves for the surgeon, suture materials, and swabs, which places a “burden” on the people.

The HCJB Quito hospital’s charity fund – which in 2004 amounted to US$400,000 worth in care – helps patients who otherwise cannot afford health services. Although the charity fund is supported by donations outside the country and by individuals, the majority of the funds are contributed by the attending physicians themselves.

“Our charity fund has been in existence for many years, but the interesting thing about the Quito hospital is...the actual bulk of that money, the major part of that money, comes from the Ecuadorian physicians who are attending here in the hospital. When they sign the contract with us and come to work for us here at Vozandes hospital, they know that a percent of their salary, and I’m not sure if it is 10 or 14 percent, will go to charity fund. So they are actually contributing themselves to our charity funds here in the hospital and to take care of poor people. And that is just something very unique,” explained Leech.

HCJB has a large health care system in Ecuador, with a hospital at the edge of the rainforest and community clinics and programs throughout the country. The healthcare division allows for a good referral system where patients can transfer to Quito if they need special care.

HCJB World Radio was the world’s first missionary broadcast organisation and for the past 70 years it has broadcasted the Gospel around the world. HCJB World Radio has ministries in more than 90 countries and broadcasts the Gospel in more than 100 languages and dialects. Hospital Vozandes Quito is one of HCJB’s hospitals in its healthcare ministry.






Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent