Comings and goings...

 VISITORS

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.

 

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.  

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.

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

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.

 

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.   

WHO had purchased the air tickets and maybe went for the cheapest option as Ian ended up leaving Entebbe at 1.40am and flying south-west to Kigali, Rwanda.  After an hour on the tarmac there, off again north-east to Addis Ababa.  Another couple of hours then flying south to Harare... a rather roundabout route but at least one leg was in a new Dreamliner plane.

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.