Kisiizi is blessed with a wider network of supporters and friends without whom we could not sustain our work or develop our services.
We have had a large number of visitors in the past month who have enriched different areas. Neil Fergusson, a consultant anaesthetist from Chester, came for a fortnight with his wife Hilary who is a speech therapist and encouraged our Rehabilitation Unit team.
Neil worked mainly in theatre with Gershom, Medius and Andrew, our anaesthetic officers, and he also ran a seminar on pain relief which ended up being in our lounge as the Staff room had been used as a temporary store for boxes that had come in on a consignment.
We also had nursing friends from the University of Chester and Countess of Chester Hospital who ran training on our wards and in the School of Nursing.
This represents the end of a 3 year programme and the goodbyes in Chapel and at the celebration in the School of Nursing were quite emotional as staff expressed their heartfelt thanks for all the input that had been provided.
A new partnership that has been launched recently is the "Maternity Hub" where UK units are linking to various hospitals or health centres in Uganda. This compliments our existing links with the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and with Chester. We currently have our first "Hub Registrar", Dr. Rachel, who is an obstetric registrar and joined us about 6 weeks ago. She is settling in well and has already helped in a number of ways to examine practice and look at quality improvements. She also has an interest in family planning and this is an area that Kisiizi, and the wider Diocese, are keen to develop as the population under 15 in Uganda is rising rapidly and many parents are really struggling to feed and educate their children.
Louise Ackers heads up the Hub programme and visited us with a team. She has visited many different hospitals and health centres in Uganda over the last 4 years so it was encourging to hear how impressed she seemed with what she found here. She recognised the difference in vision and commitment and was very helpful in offering potential multi-disciplinary support for the future.
Greg and Wendy Stormont are part of Kisiizi Partners and co-ordinate their Child Sponsorship programme so we were pleased to welcome them back to Kisiizi and to hear their updates at the end of their fortnight which included a number of visits into the community to look at various schools and projects. Greg did some valuable feedback from looking at pharmacy procurement and stores.
Helen Smith, Consultant Obstetrician from Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, returned for another visit bringing a couple of midwifery colleagues.
Helen had been here recently as had her husband Alan who had done a useful initial review of our Health Insurance Scheme.
It was valuable to have some meetings to liaise with Kisiizi Partners, to discuss future plans, and to feed back to Friends of Kisiizi day that will be held at Greyfriars Church, Reading on Saturday 6th October. All are welcome, just turn up with a packed lunch from about 10am. The meeting will go on to around 5pm and is being co-ordinated this year by Dr. Philip Haynes. It will be the first Friends day I have missed having helped with them since 1995 but Hanna will be attending and sharing.
One project for which we would very much value your prayers is the Jubilee House. This is to provide very much needed accommodation for 8 couples / families. It has been generously sponsored by Kisiizi Partners following the Hospital's Golden Jubilee in 2008. Unfortunately, the engineer commissioned to organise the project has gone well over budget and is demanding more payment, even though Kisiizi has already paid more than the originally agreed contract. We had a meeting with him recently with Alan Smith representing the donors in the hope we could come to an agreement but unfortunately the engineer was not prepared to do so. The result is that we have had to pass it to our hospital lawyers to try and get it sorted out, and I suspect that this will mean arbitration which can potentially drag the whole process out longer. Please pray that God intervenes and the matter is sorted as we really need the accommodation to take on more staff. We need to find more midwives and hope to also expand our number of interns - I will be going to Kampala next month for a meeting about this.
We also welcome significant numbers of trainees and students to Kisiizi and hope that their time here stimulates them. We are delighted that Dorothy Turitwenka, final year medical student from Kampala, is here. She is the daughter of Edward and Enid Turitwenka who served in Kisiizi at the time we were first here. Edward now heads up the national ENT department in Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
In addition we have two UK medical students at present. Sadly a few students cancelled electives here last month due to concerns about ebola, but happily there have not been any more cases.
We have had a large number of visitors in the past month who have enriched different areas. Neil Fergusson, a consultant anaesthetist from Chester, came for a fortnight with his wife Hilary who is a speech therapist and encouraged our Rehabilitation Unit team.
Neil worked mainly in theatre with Gershom, Medius and Andrew, our anaesthetic officers, and he also ran a seminar on pain relief which ended up being in our lounge as the Staff room had been used as a temporary store for boxes that had come in on a consignment.
 |
| Chester team saying goodbye in Chapel with Sister Moreen |
We also had nursing friends from the University of Chester and Countess of Chester Hospital who ran training on our wards and in the School of Nursing.
This represents the end of a 3 year programme and the goodbyes in Chapel and at the celebration in the School of Nursing were quite emotional as staff expressed their heartfelt thanks for all the input that had been provided.
A new partnership that has been launched recently is the "Maternity Hub" where UK units are linking to various hospitals or health centres in Uganda. This compliments our existing links with the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and with Chester. We currently have our first "Hub Registrar", Dr. Rachel, who is an obstetric registrar and joined us about 6 weeks ago. She is settling in well and has already helped in a number of ways to examine practice and look at quality improvements. She also has an interest in family planning and this is an area that Kisiizi, and the wider Diocese, are keen to develop as the population under 15 in Uganda is rising rapidly and many parents are really struggling to feed and educate their children.
Louise Ackers heads up the Hub programme and visited us with a team. She has visited many different hospitals and health centres in Uganda over the last 4 years so it was encourging to hear how impressed she seemed with what she found here. She recognised the difference in vision and commitment and was very helpful in offering potential multi-disciplinary support for the future.
 |
| it's hard to say goodbye, but maybe the inevitable photos help! |
Greg and Wendy Stormont are part of Kisiizi Partners and co-ordinate their Child Sponsorship programme so we were pleased to welcome them back to Kisiizi and to hear their updates at the end of their fortnight which included a number of visits into the community to look at various schools and projects. Greg did some valuable feedback from looking at pharmacy procurement and stores.
Helen Smith, Consultant Obstetrician from Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, returned for another visit bringing a couple of midwifery colleagues.
Helen had been here recently as had her husband Alan who had done a useful initial review of our Health Insurance Scheme.
It was valuable to have some meetings to liaise with Kisiizi Partners, to discuss future plans, and to feed back to Friends of Kisiizi day that will be held at Greyfriars Church, Reading on Saturday 6th October. All are welcome, just turn up with a packed lunch from about 10am. The meeting will go on to around 5pm and is being co-ordinated this year by Dr. Philip Haynes. It will be the first Friends day I have missed having helped with them since 1995 but Hanna will be attending and sharing.
 |
| Jubilee House |
 |
| Dr. Helen Smith, Dr. Rachel and driver Ezra. |
We also welcome significant numbers of trainees and students to Kisiizi and hope that their time here stimulates them. We are delighted that Dorothy Turitwenka, final year medical student from Kampala, is here. She is the daughter of Edward and Enid Turitwenka who served in Kisiizi at the time we were first here. Edward now heads up the national ENT department in Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
In addition we have two UK medical students at present. Sadly a few students cancelled electives here last month due to concerns about ebola, but happily there have not been any more cases.
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