On Wednesday evening I had a phone call asking me to see a relative of Sullieman one of Sallies drivers. The story was she had had diarrhoea for a couple of days and had become worse that afternoon. Sullieman offered to bring her up to our house. The last time Sullieman had brought someone to see me the patient was dead. This time the patient was unconscious. Limited examination in the back of the Landcruiser confirmed her need for urgent admission so I sent them down to the hospital. Half an hour later Sallie called to say they could not find a nurse. I went down and there were no nurses of any description in the hospital. There were two midwives in maternity but they could not leave their ward. The watchman who was supposed to call in staff in an emergency was drunk!
Eventually after phoning the administrator a nurse was found. I managed to borrow IV fluids from maternity , get some quinine from the male ward and put a drip up on the girl, she had cerebral malaria. The next day she had improved and she was able to go home at the week end. The medical superintendent assured me that this was an isolated incident and has never happened before. I hope he is right but I suspect nursing care at night is even worse than during the day.
We still have no gloves at the hospital. If you need a procedure you have to purchase gloves before any one can do any thing. We are short of cannulae, IV fluids and most drugs. Today I heard that we have no TB drugs to start patients on. As I diagnose TB two to three times each week that is a disaster.
This week Pam and I have started our education sessions for village volunteers. We were in Bigando about 8 km from Masindi. Some how we managed to get a vehicle and driver to take us out there on Wednesday morning. We had three days working with 42 volunteers from villages in Bigando parish. Most of them spoke some English but we needed a translator to help. Luckily Miriam the nurse in charge at the health centre was brilliant. We had three days of active adult learning, challenging for them and us but they all stayed the course This was one of the best things I have done in Uganda. The volunteers were keen and committed so different from most of the staff in the hospital. The project is to train the volunteers about preventative health especially malaria. We are trying to encourage the use of mosquito nets. We are searching for nets at a price we can afford so we can sell them at reduced cost in the villages. You would not think it would be difficult to find a supplier in Uganda but it is proving difficult. One of the main distributors has run out of nets. How come in a world that spends billions on complicated HIV drugs a simple net is so hard to come by.
At the week end we went to see the Family Spirit Centre again. This is an orphanage and school I have been to several times. It is run by a group of HIV positive men and women who recognised the need to support vulnerable children. It is the first time Maggie has been and she was impressed by the efforts of the school and their philosophy. They need money to complete their pit latrine and thanks Steve and Denise we were able to give them some money so they can complete it. Money is obviously tight at the school but they are trying really hard to give these kids a chance in life. It is always up lifting to visit the centre and the best thing about it is that it is a Ugandan response to a Ugandan problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment