The hospital has over 200 beds. Our work has been on the female medical, male medical, and pediatric units, each of which can hold up to 40 patients. There are also separate obstetric and surgical wards. The outpatient clinic sees several hundred patients each day and there are 1000 deliveries yearly. The hospital is well staffed including American physicians trained in ER (1), med-peds(1), family medicine(4), and pediatrics(1). Two of the family doctors are Samaritans' Purse post-residency fellows, serving here for a 2 year term. In addition, there are 2 African-trained surgeons, an Ob-Gyn, and a dentist. There are medical trainees at various levels....clinical officers, interns, and residents. This is the first place we have served that has a basic electronic medical record. Also, it is the only place we have been that has a working CT scan - the scans are sent by internet to Nairobi and a radiologist there sends a report back to us.
Due to the elevation, malaria is uncommon. We have seen quite a bit of HIV, TB, pneumonia, hypertension, diabetes, and gastroenteritis. Cancers of the stomach and esophagus are the most common malignancies.
 |
| Main entrance of the hospital compound |
 |
| Looking down on the hospital, a number of buildings separated by covered walkways with low hedges. |
 |
| Ready for morning hospital duties! |
 |
| We pass by a school on the way to the hospital - the children are wonderfully friendly, often crowding around us to shake our hands or get their picture taken. |
 |
| Instead of filtering or boiling water, we use bottled water - the 10 liter jug (note size next to Nalgene bottle) costs only $1.50 and lasts 3-4 days |
 |
| This is Joy's store, the local version of a 7-11. We can get our bottled water here and some of the basics. There is a larger store not far away plus local fruit and vegetable vendors. |
 |
| Along the road near the hospital are many stalls with all the fruit and vegetables you could ask for. Susie is in vegetarian heaven! |
No comments:
Post a Comment