Traditional dental care

Before going to work we left early to observe Veronica's encounter with a traditional dental hygienist. I know no other way of describing it. We had breakfast early and then caught a taxi to old town Bamenda, to where Veronica grew up. Bali, mentioned earlier, is her father's village. Apparently it is a tough area of town and she is certainly not one to be messed about.

Veronica is best described as a wonderful combination of an assertive, intelligent, compassionate Cameroon woman, who does not suffer fools gladly. How much of that has been added to by the experience of living in the USA, I don’t know but she has a lot of drive.

But let's get back to the traditional dental care. We arrived and he put a pot, hole in top and bottom, on top of three balls of some mixture, which was heated on a spade. Veronica took the smoke into her mouth, which she ensures us she did not inhale. This was done three times and the pot lifted.

The photos show it all! Three tiny maggots were located coming away from the melted mixture, apparently these came from Veronica’s mouth. She last did it about ten days or more

ago and 14 maggots came out.

Now what does one make of that?

I think after all these extra curricular activities it is time I wrote about what I am doing here and something about every day life.

Back soon....

Veronica's project

Another experience was voluntary (voluntary) work. At the Baptist Centre we met Veronica, a Cameroonian woman who is from Bamenda and now lives in the USA. She had come to visit her family but also to set up an outreach screening clinic for hypertension and diabetes. This meant doing some work back in the USA so as to be able to access the population, get medicines and equipment so as to demonstrate the value of such a project home in the USA where she hopes to raise more funds so as to establish regular screening service. I offered to help as I thought it would be useful to do some hands on clinical work. So we went to Bali hospital first to get the signed authorization before going on to the small clinic where a number of nurses and a pharmacist from the Bali Hospital not unlike the one in Bamenda but much smaller, had also offered to help. In the time available about 200 people from around the village came. We started about 10.30 and people arrived steadily through the morning, walking to the clinic form outlying areas. Two reporters were present and interviewed Veronica as part of promoting her project. We saw people of all ages, men, women and children, many with symptoms such as general aches, pains, (it is a farming area which involves hard physical work), temperature at night and belly bite. also babies with nappy rash. I helped with blood pressure screening and taking blood samples (finger pricks) to measure blood sugar levels; those with high levels were advised to go to the hospital. The nurse I worked with, Renee prescribed some medicines which they collected free from the pharmacist. Free medicines for those that needed it was an inducement that worked. Some were already on medication for hypertension so it was advice about seeing the doctor again and the importance of continuing to take the prescribed medication. I hope the photos give some indication of what it was like. It was a great day, I was so pleased to be able to help and I enjoyed the experience.

Next blog will be traditional dental care....

Health Care facilities

The internet connection has been intermittent and there is so much to add to update the blog. So many things going on in a day to day way that I asked myself what I can sum up …so a number of things come to mind and the first will be Health Care facilities.
During our in region training we went to the Mezam polyclinic set up by Dr Achu. Dr Achu provided us with our VSO in region health care advice. The clinic on first impressions was smaller but not dissimilar to the one I went to in Yaoundé for my third rabies vaccination. There is the polyclinic downstairs and some wards upstairs. The top floor is occupied by a NGO wiht5 VSO volunteers that manages a Community Programme for Aids Awareness and Action. The visit provided an opportunity to talk to Dr Achu about the clinic, which he had built after working in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. It provides general health care services, TB clinic and is an authorised centre for HIV/AIDs screening and treatment. I plan to attend a session that is being held there at the end of this week on HIV in the workplace. One of the things I need to consider when reviewing Community Based Organizational Development is programmes for HIV/AIDS, and Malaria.

Bamenda Provincial Hospital
Another opportunity to explore and have a better understanding of what is available for health care was provided one quiet morning. We walked down to the Bamenda Provincial Hospital and training school. First stop was the school for nursing assistants, a big building set back in some grounds near a school. No one was around, all the doors to the offices upstairs and class rooms down stairs were locked. However the notice board indicated that all the students were out on their placements. So to the hospital. We found the entrance for emergency Midwifery, waved my VSO ID card to the security card, explained who we were and without being asked for any further ID he called one of the nurses who took us to the Director of Nursing Office. It was interesting to see that the ward sisters had come for a meeting and had the off duty rotas in their hand. After completing a form requesting a visit to the hospital the Directors’ PA showed us around. It was both interesting and very humbling when considering the demands and the resources available. They provide comprehensive services that include outpatients, Emergency Care, Path lab services and a pharmacy. Again patients pay for their drugs before collecting them. The outpatients department also provide care HIV, TB patients, TB treatment is free; Palliative care although the only pain relief provided is oromorph, opiates not otherwise available. There are also medicine, surgery and midwifery wards. They have three theatres and a recovery /HDU of six beds. The specialist equipment is a suction machine. The X-ray department has one machine and one mobile machine, the ultrasound machine located somewhere else no longer works. l noticed that the technicians do not have the Xray tags to measure their exposure, the supply ran out some time ago. They are as careful as they can be standing behind a screen. The equipment in the maternity unit is limited and very basic. The head midwife, a man has worked there for many years was helpful and felt it was a great privilege to be a midwife. The information board showed they had about 2, 500 births a year, also the HIV incidence reported nationally as 5% is 9% here; but it is a selected population.
Visiting the medical and surgical wards was again humbling. Most of the beds were occupied and many patients had drips. Again the beds were simple iron beds, like in boarding schools of old and families bought in their food. The hospital does cook for patients who have come in from out of town and who have no one to prepare food for them. My impression was that there seemed to be quite a few nurses and student nurses (nursing assistants), often congregated in the nurse’s station / office area. Occasionally one would be in a ward discussing something with a family or in the surgical ward busy with a patient.
Finally we walked past the mortuary, the laundry facilities and mental health ward before going on to the ophthalmic department. Here the doctor was seeing a patient and had one piece of equipment to work with. We were introduced, chatted and then before leaving shook hands before being told that he was a Fon to be! At least he put his hand out first. It is not customary to shake hands with a Fon, tradition is to clap you own hands and sort of bow … but the context was different. And perhaps it is ok to shake hands with a Fon to be!
Before leaving we met and thanked the Director of Nursing, discussed what it cost to fund the tuition fees for training for a registered nurse. £300 for 3 years for general nurse, £500 a year for 4 years for a graduate nurse. Is there something we can do to help?

I am an advocate for the NHS, despite its flaws, visiting the hspital and the other clinics confirms my belief that we are fortunate. Next blog is more about health care and meeting local needs...