Maputo Central Hospital, a ‘Noah’s Ark’ of foreign doctors for 50 years

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Maputo Central Hospital, a ‘Noah’s Ark’ of foreign doctors for 50 years

11:52 CAT | 16 Jun 2025

Photo: Lusa

Former director of Maputo Central Hospital, Fernando Vaz, points to the “expansion of the health network” as a milestone of independence, recalling that in 1975 the unit became a “Noah’s Ark” due to the “so many nationalities” of the doctors.

“Here, in the hospital, we had about 30 to 35 doctors and then many African, Soviet, Guinea-Conakry and Zambian doctors came to support us. I used to say that the hospital looked like a ‘Noah’s Ark’. It had so many nationalities that people called it ‘Noah’s Ark’,” the first director of Maputo Central Hospital (HCM) after independence, Fernando Vaz, told Lusa in an interview.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mozambique’s independence, proclaimed on 25 June 1975 by Samora Machel, the first Mozambican president.

The former director of the then Lourenço Marques Central Hospital and deputy minister of Health, from 1980 to 1987, when he was appointed health minister ( 1987 to 1989), recalls a “very difficult period” for the largest health unit in Mozambique, which received around 1,000 patients per day, often without the professionals to meet the demand.

The hospital, which was also called Miguel Bombarda before independence, received cases of “everything you can imagine”, says Fernando Vaz, noting that the then largest unit in the country had all the health services and “everything was free”, although few have any idea “how difficult it was”.

“As director, I worked surgical shifts and gave classes and held meetings,” recalls the surgeon, praising the role of nurses, who were responsible for training all other health professionals, in addition to serving as “a link between doctors and the people”.

“Fortunately, nursing ensured the functioning of the central hospital. It was the nurses who ensured this, that’s why I founded Anemo, which is the Nursing Association of Mozambique, and I created the Order of Nurses, because I believed that nursing is the essential element for a functioning National Health Service,” said Vaz, who was also, later, minister of health and doctor to Samora Machel’s family.

Born on December 6, 1928, in Maputo, Fernando Vaz is also a founding member of the Order of Doctors of Mozambique, of the Maputo Special Clinic, of the Higher Institute of Health Sciences of Maputo and a founding and honorary member of the Red Cross of Mozambique.

Vaz attended the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidade Clássica de Lisboa and specialized in general surgery in the civil hospitals of Lisbon and in tropical medicine. He was the only surgeon in Timor-Leste between 1963 and 1969. He finally returned to Mozambique 20 years later and became a hospital surgeon, as well as a surgical assistant at the medical school.

Already in charge of “Noah’s Ark”, Vaz says that the government defined five priorities for the health sector in the post-independence period: expansion of the health network throughout the country, investment in preventive medicine, environmental sanitation, water supply and waste management, housing and vaccinations, and intensive training of health workers.

“Doctor Hélder Martins [the first post-independence minister of health] defended the primary health care strategy, which includes a health post, a health centre, plus rural, provincial and central hospitals […]. Fortunately, that came through,” Vaz said.

After 50 years of independence, Fernando Vaz states that the health sector “has evolved in a very positive way”, highlighting the increase in units.

“Firstly, racism and discrimination have been eliminated. All patients are treated the same way, this was a huge step. Secondly, technical and professional health careers were created,” said the surgeon, calling for “the promotion of community health by the community itself”.

Source: Lusa