Wow – so much has happened in the past week that I can hardly keep up. I have been meaning to write on the blog but have been so busy with moving country, getting used to life in South Africa and then getting used to life in Ingwavuma. Henry and I have only been in Ingwavuma for 48 hrs and are slowly getting settled in. I was expecting but still found it a bit scary to see lots of welcoming cockroaches when we arrived to our new home. We also had no running water but after speaking to the house mother of Mosvold today (the hospital where I am working at), we now have running water. As for the cockroaches, I don’t think we will be getting rid of them unless we get a dog. I am very keen but will probably not as it is not really fair given our lifestyle and we get the perks of them (there are many) without the responsibility.
I thought I would write a bit about Mosvold Hospital which is the hospital in the town of Ingwavuma. Mosvold Hospital serves a population of 120 000 and has 8 doctors (since today - this is an improvement of the 6 doctors they have been having for the past two months). It has six wards: male, female, paediatrics, maternity, TB and isolation. It also has a ridiculously busy outpatient department (OPD). It is a district hospital with 246 beds but in clinic today I had three patients who I ‘lodged’ for the night. This means they don’t need to be admitted but either can’t get the investigation they need on the day (CXR stops at 16.00) or live too far away to travel back home after their visit to the hospital. Given this, I can only imagine that the actual number of patients who stay in the hospital is much greater.
I start work at 7.30 am and on routine days should finish at 16.30. There is a mandatory tea break at a colleagues’ house at 10 am for 30 minutes – this morning it was at the home where the dentist is living. I was very impressed we had a dentist but she has only been here for 6 weeks. We currently have no pharmacist, ultrasonographer or radiographer (these are the only ones I am aware about).
Today, I worked in OPD and it was very different than I am used to in the UK. First of all, the waiting room is heaving by 8.30am and no one seems to complain. Maybe this is not true but my Zulu is not yet up to scratch (Henry is trying to teach me 10 words a day as are the nurses but a lot of the time we end up in giggles). Luckily, during my consultations, I always have a nurse (usually a student one) who also doubles up as a translator. My first patient was a rape case which takes approximately two hours so one of my colleagues (who explained to me that we had many rape cases) kindly took on the case – I am not sure I could have handled the whole thing first thing! My second and third cases were people asking me to complete death certificates on their relative which was bizarre given I had never met the patient let alone seen them in the mortuary. My fourth case was a gogo (elderly woman) who had post menopausal bleeding and needed a pipelle and biopsy (couldn’t believe we just carried them out in clinic). The examination and investigation was quite hilarious as she was quite large and didn’t quite fit on the bed. I ensured I did not laugh given it took a good 10 minutes to get the gogo in the right position! I continued to have an array of cases throughout the day. I had a twenty six year old male with significant amount of blood loss - who I brought to the resuscitation room (which has one bed) not because people were worried about his tachycardia (fast heart rate) and low blood pressure - but because he would get blood on the floor. I also prescribed many ARVs (anteretroviral drugs) – I found this aspect easier that I thought as both colleagues and patients seem (so far) to be open about HIV and TB. There were lots of other cases which I will not bore you with except to tell you about a case of a young man who came in with severe burns of his legs and feet – the worst I have ever seen. As popping the massive blisters with a scalpel was so painful, the patient was given both ketamine and pethidine and was quite knocked out. I was quite worried about whether he was going to wake up but my colleague told me not to worry!
I think that is enough cases to tell you about but needless to say – I worked until 17.30 and will be back tomorrow. Thursday I will be in theatre for the day (emergency stuff which frightens me but will have my goggles at the ready) and I am also first on-call which I am more worried about as the idea of me running the entire hospital by myself is quite scary! I will be working from 7.30am on Thursday until Friday at 13.00 so very much looking forward to my weekend off. Henry and I are thinking about going away somewhere!
The people here at Mosvold have been so welcoming and kind to Henry and me. There is a lot of accommodation on site – all quite basic – either homes or parkhomes. Everyone is South African except Henry, Shabana (the other British doctor who also started today) and me. Tomorrow, we have supper club which will be held at the OT and physio therapist park home. This fun event happens every month!
I am off to bed. Love M
No comments:
Post a Comment