Issue no 3, 1999 -- English edition -- home
Page: -- Contents -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (7), 8
Dr Ninni Ernstdotter, from Luleå, Sweden, on her first assignment as jeep-doctor, sends a long and detailed report, but states from the start:
"My meeting with Africa, and Maseno where I had my base, was bewildering-a reality so totally different from our comfortable welfare society. It is quite another matter to meet this reality than to read about it or see it on TV."
Dr Ernstdotter takes up another serious issue: the hospital in Maseno. The Doctor Bank has sent doctors here for many years. The Erik's Help has for example completed extensive projects to give the hospital a water supply, Vänersborg RC among others has donated valuable equipment, and a Dutch Lions club has arranged decent roads within the hospital area.
The hospital, which is run by the Kenyan Anglican Church, suffered irregularities earlier this year and the administration ran off. The hospital's only income is from patient fees.
"This is simply unreasonable," opinions Dr Ernstdotter, "but I understand that this situation is not unusual in Kenya."
Yes, the situation can seem insufferable, both for this hospital and others. The natural thing, as we see it in Sweden, would be state support. Somehow, it still works so that our surgeons at this hospital have during the past years been able to perform thousands of operations and save many lives. However, the hospital's future is very uncertain.
|
The hospital in Maseno, where the Doctor Bank has three doctors and one coordinator, looks idyllic, but is struggling with grave economic difficulties. |
"I could make a positive difference for a 27 year old woman with sight impairment due to cataracts, thanks to the Doctor Bank Poverty Fund," says Dr Ernstdotter. "For 500 Crowns (USD 60) from the Poverty Fund, she was examined and operated. This included medicines and follow-up, even treatment of any complications. I also used the Poverty Fund, along with my jeep-doctor colleague, to help a man with burn injuries to pay his hospital bills, and a young completely destitute woman who needed a Caesarean. At another hospital, I could help a desperately ill man who was operated and had his abdomen cleared of pus."
The Doctor Bank often receives thank you notes from the people where out doctors live. Here are some rows from Magadi in Kenya, where the Doctor Bank since 1998 has a jeep-doctor realy among the Masai. Dr Stephen K Andrea writes from the school where the jeep-doctor has reception:
"I think of the first day, 7 December 1998, when Dr Per Lexner and nurse Eva-Britt came here. They immediately showed understanding for our people. From the start we have had wonderful doctors here who have appreciated and adjusted to our way of life. Our health committee shall do its best to make the clinic as functional as possible."
Orthopaedist and GP Britta Eneström, from Malmö, Sweden, participated during her stay in Garissa in a seminar on circumcision:
"The Somali women had taken the initiative for this. It was a great experience to see and hear the Somali men's reactions when the lecturer was about to draw the female genitals. It will take time to change this traditional attitude. At the seminar was also discussed the reason why there were so few deliveries at the hospital. Participating women gave as the reason that the hospital was so filthy that they feared contracting AIDS."
The Swedish Gislaved Rotary Club does great things for the Doctor Bank, and according to a local newspaper, the club will under the new president Bertil Fagerström both give out stipends and continue to support the Doctor Bank.