Good Shepherd Hospital blog

The year was full of challenges. At the end of 2006 Dr. Aby Philip left Good Shepherd Hospital to return to India. The Administrator, Mrs. Dumisile Simelane, took him to his Majesty King Mswati to bid farewell. The King thanked Dr Philip for his service to Swaziland and the Swazi people. Dr Philip had been awarded the King’s Medal of honour some years back for his service to the Kingdom. He had been with us since 1982 and knew people from all walks of life and has given most of his life to the service of Good Shepherd. His wisdom and commitment will be missed by all. He had an extraordinary way of keeping in touch with everything that went on in the hospital and was loved and respected by all. Dr. Petros Hailliemarie, a Specialist surgeon from Eritrea, took over the position as Chief Medical Officer. Although Dr. Petros has already been with us for over two years he was hard pressed keeping up with his duty as surgeon as well as the duties of the running of the Hospital. We relieved him of some of the pressure by recruiting Dr, Tefere, also from Eritrea, who took over some of the Surgery taking the load off Dr. Petros His is now in a much better position to handle the administrative work. The Good Shepherd Hospital, as the Regional Hospital for Lubombo region has not lost its reputation as one of the best hospitals in Swaziland. Patients come to us from all the other regions in the Kingdom. They flock to us because of the competence of our doctors and our ability to supply the patients with drugs, even if it be at the expense of extending our finances to purchase the drugs.

We have been joined by Dr. Gladje, an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist, from India, who has brought much of his Equipment with him. His wife, Dr Asha, has also joined the staff, and being a lady doctor, has already earned the respect of women from many parts of Swaziland who especially come to see her. We also have on our team, Dr Kalungero, a Specialist Physician, from the Republic of Congo. He has his wife, Valerie with him who has joined the Home Based Care Nursing Staff. It is a good thing in a small community like ours to have one’s partner with one, as Siteki is a little isolated. Dr Joyce Maserewa, left us to serve in the Paediatrics Section of an Mbabane Hospital, we are grateful for all the she did for the Children at Good Shepherd. Her position has been taken over by Dr. Hailu who is now in charge of Paediatrics. We are very proud of our Children’s Ward that provides such a nice area for the children as compared to the cramped conditions that we were operating under in years gone by. I wish to thank our Eye Department, headed by Dr. Jonathan Pons and his very capable team. He is the only Ophthalmologist in Swaziland, and is sponsored by the Christian Blind Mission (CBM) in conjunction with the Good Shepherd Hospital. They provide an excellent service and have patients from as far as South Africa and Mozambique.

Our Home Based Care Team goes out to the communities and visits different homesteads on a daily basis. They carry Drugs and Food parcels which are distributed to the needy.

Without the help of so many donors and interested caring people the hospital would not function as it does. Thanks to Jon and Amy Berman and the Remote Area Medical also to Kathleen Hartman, they provide sponsorship and payment of food parcels distributed by the Home Based Care Team. The Catholic Medical Mission also sponsor Staff and ARV Drugs used in the Mother to Child HIV prevention program.

Thanks to Ron Rousse now replaced by Julie and our own staff who go out daily.

Many people work in the background and go unnoticed but without their help we would not be able to serve the community as we do.

Dr. David & Catherine Wakely kept our Web Site active for many years. This is now taken over by my son, Malcolm and can be viewed at www.goodshepherdhosp.org

We have a steady flow of Medical Students who learn of us through the internet. Our interaction with our fellow human beings from different countries has a very positive influence on our lives. Many friends who are made at the hospital remain friends for years.

We are very grateful for container of medical equipment from donated to us by the Carnival Group UK from one of their passenger ships. S/N Jane Bates personally accompanied to crates that were delivered to the hospital. We also received an X-ray machine from the P & O Lines through Dr. Schramm coordinated by Dr. Jonathan Pons. We appreciate the interest shown by Leeds University and the research and help that they provide to the hospital. They provide backing for projects and work together with our staff in helping in the community. I am encouraged by the ongoing activity at the hospital. Unfortunately I am bound to miss out thanking a lot of people. If I have done so please forgive me.

I also need to say that we are grateful to His Majesties’ Government who through the Ministry of Health, who provide us with the largest portion of our operating budget, without their subvention we could not operate. We have recently received an Ambulance, sponsored by Nerche. We had been without an Ambulance for many years and have been transporting patients in an ordinary van. This was most unsatisfactory.

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My thanks to our Lord Bishop, Louis Ncamisa Ndlovu, of the Catholic Diocese of Manzini, who is the Head of the hospital, and my fellow board members for all their help and support and also to our Hospital Administrator, Mrs. Dumisile Simelane, and Thulie Dlamini, Board Member and Consultant who I have worked so closely with in steering the hospital through the problems that we have encountered in the past year.

I am pleased to be part of a team that does so much to providing Health Care to the people of this region.

Graham Duke

Chairman of the Board

We are very grateful for container of medical equipment from donated to us by the Carnival Group UK from one of their passenger ships. S/N Jane Bates personally accompanied to crates that were delivered to the hospital. We also received an X-ray machine from the P & O Lines through Dr. Schramm coordinated by Dr. Jonathan Pons.

Hi all

The site is fixed again and the link that was down is up again.

Malcolm

Hi All

I have just noticed that some how your of the pages from the site have been dropped. Every thing will be up and running in the next 24 hours

Thanks

Webmaster

Dear Friends

This has been a year of consolidation of the clinical service: Numbers of cataract surgeries are unchanged, but we offer a broader service than before. 459 people had free/subsidised surgery thanks partly to a LCIF grant! CBMI continues to offer excellent financial, professional and logistical support. The Good Shepherd Hospital is a stable foundation on which the service is based. This makes it possible to offer a comprehensive eye service.

Happenings……. We opened a new clinic and eye theatre in Manzini: A partnership with a private clinic where our poor patients can have surgery…………. 2 weeks of Vitreo-Retinal Surgery experience at Moorfields hospital in London (with Dr Gregor) was truly inspiring and I learned so much that it took weeks to digest. My diagnosis and management of retinal conditions has improved! We need a Vitrectomy machine for Swaziland to continue this service…… Dr Lavy, Paed Ophthalmologist, and Dr Shlugman, Anaesthetist, from the UK did several children’s surgeries with me in November. This is now an annual event and many children have been helped with vision………A week at Moshi, Tanzania, discussing training of eye surgeons was a pleasure: My role in Southern Africa as a cataract surgery trainer may increase due to RSA training sites being closed to African doctors………. I enjoy teaching and have taken in Medical Students from UK, Hong Kong, Ireland, RSA and USA this year………. I still run SLUDG: Swaziland Lowveld Doctors Group, the only journal club in Swaziland……Sadly, Dr David Tyers, the UK doctor who helped me with the management of the project had to return to the UK. Picking up from where he left off has been a challenge. However, with much hard work and the help of Mr Duke, the administration is in a better state than it has ever been.

“Feed My People”: Since 2005, when we began a feeding scheme based in the eye service, we have provided food parcels for people just commenced on Anti RetroViral drugs (HIV meds): The Home Based Care team distributes these, enough food for a family for a week. This is made possible by the Berman family and Remote Area Medical fund in the US. The fund also paid for a nutritional assistant to malnourished children.

Research is well underway: Looking into the possible connection between restoring vision through cataract surgery, and the benefits to orphan care. Preliminary data shows that 80% of elderly in Swaziland have an orphan living in their home!

Difficulties:

• I am still the only Eye Surgeon in the country, making for difficult times when I leave the country for more than a week at a time. There are very long queues and clinics. The Government has not yet appointed an Ophthalmologist: Apparently due to lack of accommodation for him/her.
• Cataract numbers are not increasing much due to the slow pace of Case finding. Swazi’s live in dispersed homesteads in rough terrain, where buses, bicycles or other cheap transport cannot reach. With only 2 case finders and the rise in fuel price, we are prevented from doing more.

Please convey the thanks from our patients and staff for your part in all these successes! May God truly bless you as you have sowed living resources into the lives of so many struggling people in Swaziland!

Kind regards

Dr Jonathan Pons and Eye team

Outpatients seen:10 672, Cataract Surgeries:772, Other Surgeries:405, Spectacles Distributed:729

Hi all i have just updated the site and the blog all seems to be running well

Malcolm

Hi there and welcome to Good shepherd Hospital blog

please feel free to blog about anything to do with experences to do with Swaziland, travel or anything to do with Medical infomation or related subjects!