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| The Board and Management May 2014 |
Window on Kisiizi
Friday, 23 May 2014
Board of Governors meeting
Comings and goings...
VISITORS
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| The Minister of Health of the Buganda Kingdom cuts the cake |
It is enriching for
the Kisiizi community to have a mix of visitors arriving for different lengths
of time and with different areas of interest.
For example in the last month or two we have had Eric Smith who has faithfully
prayed for Kisiizi and its work for over 50 years. Then one day a knock on the door and out of the blue Graham
Piper was there – he had worked as a water engineer in Kabale when we were
first in Kisiizi in 1987 onwards with his wife Philippa who is a GP. In fact Hanna delivered one of their children,
Simon, here. Graham only came to Kisiizi
as a bridge was down preventing him travelling his planned route so it was an
unexpected blessing for us.
Another unplanned visit was arranged at short notice when Suzy and Suzy, 2 medical students, had commenced their elective in Zimbabwe but after a few days had to leave due to administrative issues outside their control. They were unable to continue their elective and we heard of their plight through Lionel and Mary Mills who knew one of the Suzi's and her family very well. It all fell together as we had a vacancy and so the two girls came for about 3 weeks but fitted in a lot during their time here and we suspect that in the fullness of time we will see much fruit from this short but very positive visit to Kisiizi.
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| Dr. Emmanuel |
James and Esta came out to work with us for about 3 months, James as a junior doctor and Esta in our primary school where she caused much excitement by introducing very practical sessions on various aspects of science.
Another unexpected visit came following a request that the Minister of Health of the Buganda Kingdom might visit Kisiizi particularly to look at our community health insurance scheme. He came with a small group and it turned out that the senior doctor accompanying him was none other than Emmanuel who had stayed with us three times long ago when he was a medical student and then a junior doctor so it was lovely to see him again. He now heads up the African Palliative Care Association.
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| Some members of Management with Jamie's Fund team and David, our engineer |
Another important visit was by Fiona Clark the new Chief Executive of Jamie's Fund. She came with our good friends Ewan and Mo Wilkinson from Chester and a colleague Niall Campbell, a GP psychiatrist.
We were able to agree the go ahead of the architect's plans they had brought out with them so can now work on the costings for the new Ahumuza Mental Health Ward and Day Unit. One key decision from the visit was that our aim long term should be to have a Consultant Psychiatrist in Kisiizi. Previously we had expected to continue with a Psychiatric Clinical Officer. However the new aspiration fits in with our goal to be a centre of excellence clinically and in our training and this will make us a regional centre for Mental Health services which with the very special new ward is entirely appropriate.
Subsequently we were able to once again welcome Dr. Helen, Consultant Obstetrician from Reading who is also the Chair of Kisiizi Partners. She came with Tess and Charlotte, two midwives from the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who were amazed at how much they saw in a couple of weeks of Kisiizi maternity life.
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| Noor enjoying the waterfall view |
Currently we are delighted to have a special visitor with us - Hanna's sister Leonoor (Noor) from Leiden, Netherlands.
She had done a sponsored cycle ride in eastern Uganda and we met up in Kampala to bring her the six hour journey to Kisiizi. It is her first time in Uganda.
TRIPS
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| Dr Jemma & Sr Maryanna presenting |
Dr Gabriel, consultant surgeon, has just been to Lachor Hospital in
Northern Uganda to look at their endoscopy service and their Intensive Care
Unit. Our second specialist surgeon, Dr.
Robert, had previously been away for a couple of weeks at the CoRSU hospital
near Entebbe to further develop his orthopaedic skills. We look forward to a
further visit from one of our Urology colleagues from Royal Berkshire Hospital,
Reading, in June and Dr. Francis is arranging a special Fistula Surgical Camp
later in June. It is good to develop the
range of specialty surgery we can offer our patients and we are extremely
grateful for all the support towards this goal.
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| Joseph |
Ian travelled up to Kampala with Dr. Jemma, Paediatric Registrar,
and Sr. Maryanna, Maternity Specialist Nurse, for a meeting of the Uganda
Maternal and Newborn Hub where we all gave presentations. We were struck again how blessed we are
compared to some of those working in government hospitals who were expressing frustration
at not being able to get things done due to lack of administration support in
their institutions.
There was also a meeting about medical equipment and our new Biomedical Technician, Joseph, attended.
Ian went on to Harare for an important workshop/conference for the
partnerships belonging to the World Health Organization African Partnerships
for Patient Safety. Kisiizi is one of
only 3 English-speaking hospitals in the first wave, and there are now a
further 5 second-wave partnerships. This
was the first time that all eight partnerships had the opportunity to meet up
and it was a full and stimulating 3 days together.
Sarah Hoyle from Countess of Chester Hospital
and Ian gave a presentation which was well received. We are the only one of the partnerships to
have in-patient mental health services, a large community health insurance
scheme and involvement in the WHO Universal Health Coverage / Patient Safety
& Quality learning laboratories as well as running the WHO Surgical
Unit-based Safety Programme. We are
hopeful that we will be in a good position to obtain a grant in the next few months to help us further develop our services.
Marriage seminar
We started with a questionnaire and then mixed a talk with role-play and it all seemed to go well.
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