King Faisal Hospital

“My wife and I visited the Gynecology Department at King Faisal Hospital twice recently, and both visits were disappointing. Despite arriving early and even having confirmed appointments, we waited for hours with no updates. One visit started at 8:40 AM, and we only saw the doctor near 3 PM. The next week, we had an 11:20 AM appointment but were still waiting past 1 PM. The process is disorganized—patients without appointments are seen before those with bookings, and the queue screens don’t work. Staff communication is poor, and a male staff member entered the ladies’ restroom without knocking. Also, the nurses taking vitals were laughing and talking about personal stories during work, which felt unprofessional. This department urgently needs better scheduling, communication, and professionalism.”

“Dear Team at King Faisal Hospital, I would like to sincerely express my appreciation for the nursing services in general. The nurses are caring, supportive, and truly dedicated to their work, and their compassion makes a real difference to patients and families. I would like to especially recognize Furaha Florence from the Theatre Department and Ingabire Magera, Director of Nursing – Maternal, Child and Women’s Health. Their support, professionalism, and passion as part of King Faisal Hospital Rwanda (KFHR) were exceptional. They truly represent the hospital’s values and commitment to quality care. I also cannot finish without thanking a remarkable man whom I have never met in person, yet whose passion and dedication are clearly felt — Dr. BARIKACHEW . His commitment to service is truly inspiring. May God bless him abundantly. While the clinical care and nursing services were excellent, I would like to respectfully note that the restaurant room-delivery service needs improvement, as it does not reflect the same level of professionalism demonstrated by the medical and nursing teams. Thank you once again for the outstanding care and support.”

“I had a very disappointing experience at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali. I was scheduled for surgery to remove an ovarian cyst and had already completed the required preparations and payment. At the last minute, I was informed that the gynecologist would not be available for the entire week, and my procedure was cancelled. This was extremely distressing because I am currently experiencing significant pain and had been relying on the scheduled surgery for relief. Being informed so late left me feeling helpless and without immediate medical support. While the hospital has a strong reputation, my experience with scheduling and communication was very poor. Patients dealing with serious pain should receive clearer communication and better contingency planning if a doctor becomes unavailable. I hope the hospital improves its patient communication and support systems so others do not go through the same stressful situation.”

“As a foreigner with less than 2 months in the country, I ended up at Faisal Emergency Room gasping for breath because I had lung infection. I was told that except I put up a 500K deposit, I could not be seen. I had MOMO account with more than enough money. However, I had issues getting the MOMO System to make payment to the hospital for whatever reasons I don't know. I asked if they would accept my BK Transfer form of payment but they claimed they only accept Momo. So because I couldn't make payment with both MOMO and BK Tranfers, I was pretty much left alone to perish in their ER. until I was able to pay up. Thank goodness I'm still here to share my story. Luckily a BK Employee who the week before had seen me collapsed on the floor of her bank had earlier in the day sent one of her friends who was also a staff at Faisal to assist me with relocating from my home to Faisal Hospital. Thanks to him, he assisted me with finally making my payment through MOMO. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I had put up a deposit of 300k that they finally took me over from the ER. to a room inside the hospital, and this was after about "3 plus hours" of languishing in a terrible health condition with serous life threatening respiratory discomfort in their ER. Before I was able to pay up, about 2 different doctors came around and ask the same question to know what the problem was. It was as if they were just checking to make sure that I'm still alive before they'll handle my situation as an emergency. I felt like they took light of my health condition simply because I hadn't paid up yet. Now what I want Rwandans and other Africans to take away from this experience is that this level of "SUBSTANDARD & UNPROFESSIONAL COSTOMER SERVICE" whereby hospitals demand money upfront from even a dying patient before they could be seen by a doctor, is a typical "AFRICAN CONTINENT WIDE STANDARD" in general. In order words, it's NOT limited to Rwandan Hospitals alone, which still doesn't make it PROFESSIONALLY, MORALLY and ETHICALLY right. Most of my life was lived in a few other countries overseas, and I know for certain that it's ILLEGAL in atleast one of these countries for hospitals to either refuse medical service to a patient or demand payment upfront for whatever reasons whatsoever. Also, people should ensure that they're NEVER without medical insurance because even if you could afford to buy Faisal Hospital or atleast have enough money in your bank or Momo Account to pay Faisal, something as common as a payment glitch in the payment system could leave you DEAD not just at Faisal but at any hospital in most parts of the continent of Africa. However, the good news from this traumatizing and scary experience is that my medical care team cured me of my illness and sent me home about a week later AS SOON AS they noticed the slightest improvement in my health condition. In order words, they DIDN'T try to keep me unnecessarily or indefinitely in order to suck me dry of my money as is common with certain currupt hospitals all across Africa. Although they did milked me of over a million Rwandan Frank for only about a week of hospitalization, which I thought was pretty ridiculous. In addition, the physician and pulmonogist assigned to my care were excellent and did their jobs concienciously. Thanks to them. Also, thanks to the kitchen staff whose name I don't remember. This guy was very accommodating when I needed specific food combination instead of their standard combination. Suffice to say that my medical care team did far better as medical professionals than the hospital did as a business establishment incorporated to provide Healthcare Service to the general public. Now here's my message to Faisal, attempt to be more reasonable and provide a more advanced and professional service to the public by accepting all forms of legal tenders including bank transfers, and DO NOT EVEN DARE TO MAKE ANY EFFORT TO GET THIS REVIEW REMOVED because it will simply be "RE-POSTED!"”

“I was shocked by how bad this hospital is. We waited three hours just for an ultrasound, and there were no more than four people waiting. They are extremely slow with the admission procedures, and very slow in dealing with patients. You simply cannot rely on them here. I absolutely do not recommend this place. The hospital itself is very nice, but the management is extremely poor— a real waste of resources. I truly regret coming here.”