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The group witness a cataract operation being performed
Trip of a lifetime Day 2
After an early start the group headed south along a main tarmac road, in bright sunshine. First stop was the eye camp hospital at Ntcheu, close to the border with Mozambique. The country office fund a general surgery team to visit the hospital to carry out eye surgery, and hope in the future to train teams so that only the surgeon needs to travel. To date an outreach system funded by Sightsavers has provided a bus to go and bring patients to the hospital, but this is expensive, and is being phased out as the team is trained.
In general local health centres, each covering perhaps 10,000 people, assess and refer people to the hospital as necessary. Staff at the centres may be restricted to a nurse, but ideally should also employ a medical assistant. The centres have a calendar showing future dates when the surgeon will be at the hospital, so people can arrange an appropriate time for their treatment.
The group was shown around by Richard, the Ophthalmic Clinical Officer. Initial assessments were being carried out by a nurse who by mid-morning was dealing with her thirty-fourth patient, having been working since 7.30am.
Patients who would be operated on that day waited quietly sitting on the floor in a corridor, before moving to a pre-operation room, effectively another corridor, where local anaesthetic was administered prior to surgery. Again the patients sat calmly on the floor, awaiting their turn, and all seemed reasonably relaxed.
Initial assessments were being carried out by a nurse who by mid-morning was dealing with her thirty-fourth patient
A highlight of the visit for the group was to see actual cataract operations being performed by Dr Rajendra, the Indian surgeon funded by Sightsavers. Following the operation, which is carried out in a matter of minutes, the patients remain one night in hospital, for the most part sleeping on the floor, before the dressing is removed and they are able to return home.
We spoke with sixty-five-year-old man Chinkulauchina, who had just come out of surgery, and seemed to have taken everything in his stride - he would know the next day whether or not the operation had been a success. The speed and skill of the surgeons was most impressive, as was the general calm composure of the patients.
In the afternoon the journey continued south to Blantyre, the commercial centre of the country. We were met by Lennox, who represented the Ministry of Education, and would accompany the group for the next 3 days.
Before a late evening meal we took a short visit to the local curio market near to the hotel. This exposed the group to some high pressure selling techniques, which for some resulted in purchases which presented some problems later when packing their bags for the return to UK!
