Paper short abstract:

This paper presents a case study of the Panzi model of holistic care, and by incorporating diverse voices of care-professionals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, casts a vision for African care futures that integrate biomedical approaches while preserving African views and perspectives on care.

Paper long abstract:

Dominant epistemologies of medical care have been shaped by capitalist, colonial and gendered legacies. These legacies often manifest in negative power-dynamics between caregivers and patients; infrastructure that is unwieldy and unsustainable without foreign intervention; and a focus on cost-recovery, vs the provision of care to individuals. While biomedical advances have led to increased positive clinical outcomes, indigenous and pre-colonial African perspectives on care as a relational activity are steadily devalued. Future hospitals in Africa and other post-colonial contexts face the challenge of how to integrate technical bio-medical advances, without losing traditional, pre-colonial, perspectives on care.

This paper analyzes this dilemma, by focusing on Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which provides an important case study for the future of African care. The integration of community perspectives, the primacy of relationships among the caregiver and patients, and an emphasis on the social ethos of care are part of the approach now defined as the Panzi One Stop Centre model, which has inspired the development of a Regional Integrated Model of Care in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This framework suggests a new elan for the future of care in the continent.

By utilizing participatory action research methods, the paper incorporates the views of medical professionals primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo, casting a vision of the future African hospital, which integrates biomedical and technological innovation, with a holistic, social ethos of care that refocuses indigenous and African perspectives and practices, within and outside the walls of institutions.