The first meeting of the new season was held at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club on October 14th 2015.
Dr John Dracass, last season’s president, was in the chair. He welcomed the members and proceeded with the inauguration of Dr Martin Radford, who was unavoidably absent at the AGM, as his successor. Dr Radford then took the chair.
The members then stood for a minutes silence in memory of Mr Jason Brice and Mr Barry Evans.
The president then introduced himself as speaker, his title being: Life in a Ugandan Mission Hospital. Dr Radford joined the staff of St Joseph’s Hospital, a Catholic Mission Hospital, in Masaka near Lake Victoria. It serves a population that is poor, but reasonably well nourished. It is a green and fertile area and the people live in huts made from clay bricks and have an acre of land to cultivate. There is no running water which has to be collected from the lake nearby. It is an easy trip often done by children with large containers. He graphically described the local village. St Joseph’s Hospital is relatively modern. A nurse, a very good nurse, sits on an elevated chair at the entrance and triages the arriving patients. The paediatric department is 3 years old and very nice on the outside. Inside are iron beds close together with 2-3 patients to a bed. General care is done by the family so the ward is very crowded with large families in attendance. The nurses are local, and locally trained, and the standards are excellent. There are not many doctors in Uganda due to the brain drain. However they have trained Clinical Medical Officers who do a 3 year course in which the clinical teaching is the same as for the medical students but basic medical sciences are minimal. They learn by algorithms. Many will later complete medical training.
Dr Radford then considered some illnesses. Malaria is mainly the Plasmodium falciparum type which has a high childhood mortality. This affects the livelihoods of subsistence farmers who are dependent on children for help. Some children have an Hb of 1 or 2 on arrival and need urgent transfusion. The staff are very efficient in an emergency. There are good laboratory facilities with good technicians and the blood bank works well. There is a replacement blood policy and the family is expected to donate afterwards.
There is also a non-acute ward. Kwashiorkor is very common. There is little starvation but there is a lack of protein in the diet as they mainly eat bananas. There is a nutrition unit with a kitchen constructed like the family’s one at home and the sister runs sessions on preparing nourishing meals for the mothers of these patients. It is a rewarding illness to treat. HIV is treated elsewhere. Pregnant women are given ARVs after 12 weeks pregnancy. Avoiding breast feeding after delivery is difficult.
Dr Radford also spoke about fistulas usually occurring after obstructed labour. The women smell and are stigmatised or even thrown out by the family and become destitute. He said that leaflets, supplied by the Addis Ababa Fistula Unit, were readily available in the ante-natal unit. These explain the causes and prevention in pictures and persuade mothers to come early to hospital if labour seems obstructed and explain how to get treatment. The surgical skills needed for treatment are not available in Uganda so the Catholic Church funds visits from surgeons from the UK and USA. The cases are collected and treated during these visits.
Finally, he described Masaka, their district town, which is the fourth largest town in Uganda. He said the only building of note was the Catholic Church which is built in gentle catholic style. There were notices around the entrance saying that women had the right to choose their contraception.
Dr Dracass gave the vote of thanks.
The Treasurer then gave her annual report. She described the transfer of funds from HSBC to Investec and that the income had increased as a result. She said that the committee had agreed to increase the Foott Memorial Bursary to £400 as agreed at the AGM. She also requested that any member, whose annual subscription was not paid in May, should change it to May. The accounts were accepted having been proposed by Dr Dracass and seconded by Mr Jackson. The meeting also accepted that our accountants and auditors should continue. The President spoke about increasing membership. He considered that we needed to approach the recently retired. He requested that if members knew of any doctors who had recently retired, or were about to, that they should let him know and he would write a personal letter inviting them to join.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 10.00pm.