Blame the visitors

We seem to have neglected the blog and all I can do is blame the visitors.Dan flew home yesterday after a short visit. It was great to see him and we enjoyed showing him Masindi and Murchison Falls. Emma a medical student has also been heretaking a look at medicine in Masindi before travelling to Bwindi for the rest of her elective.
Having visitors is great as it makes you look again at things you have begun to take for granted. Showing people around the hospital is always interesting seeing the response of pateints and nurses as well as the visitors. Dan could relate to the hospital after his elective in Malawi but Emma was quite shocked especially by the nursing situation.This week end the female ward where i work has moved to a new ward. This ward was built £ years ago but has never been opened. It is better than the old ward but why would any one design a hospital ward with not a single sink. There are some toilets in another part of the building and some sinks there but they are not functionning! I am becoming obsesswed by hand washing and the lack of facilities. A new Medical Superintendant has arrived this week and he seems to share my concerns. He did however point out that the hospital is 60 million ugandan shillings in debt at the end of the financial year and that they had not received there money from central government for the last 2 months. It is not surprising that the system is in decline.Every one blames the fact that all the money goes to HIV/AIDS and there is none left for the routine work. That is a factor but only part of the picture.
This week I went out ot a village and saw 5 patients with leprosy. This is a disease which should be relatively easily managed in Uganda. There is a programmme, the drugs are cheap and in the country but why was only one of these patients on adequate treatment. Next week I have a meeting with the Leprosy lead for the district and I will try and find out what is happening.
On a happier note the child with dislocated knees is back from Kampala and appears to have been sorted. That is one small achievement but great for him.
We spent the weeekend as tourists at Murchison Falls. As Dan was with us we treated our selves to 2 nights at the Nile Safari LOdge. This was a great place to stay overlooking the Nile. The noise of frogs and hippos at night was unbeleivable and Maggie managed to add another 20+ birds to her list. She is becoming quite a twitcher.