On Sunday September 8, many of our group toured the hospital. It opened in August of 2006, built with US $ and to US standards. 48 beds are open and an average of 25% are filled. 3-4 surgeries per week: appies, kidneys stones (poor hydration and high mineral content of well water), and removal of old shrapnel. Most of the soldiers live 10 miles away in town and are transported to the base each day. Unfortunately, no other public transportation exists so their families don't come. Bottom line: the hospital and clinic are primarily seeing males in the 20-50 years old range. We will work with them on ways to create more primary care opportunities that will include their families and perhaps the public.
Supplies and equipment are challlenges. Consistent deliveries are difficult since there is one major highway in the country, the "ring road", and it can take a week to deliver supplies by truck from Kabul (rhymes with "gobble") or Bagram AFB in the east. Most commerce occurs with Iran, only 50 miles away, but that creats obvious difficulties for the US-led coalition.
They are thrilled to have us here. Our team represents a huge increase of medical expertise to help them. Previously, our base provided one family doc and a few technicians; now we provide a radiologist, an anesthesiologist, another family doc, lab techs, radiology techs, and even a former dental tech.
Today's words in Dari: Baley is "yes", ney is "no"
2 comments:
It's good getting the sitreps from you. Nice perspective on what you are up to. How's the weather? How big is the hospital staff?
We have a countdown timer on our Google personalized homepage that is counting down to your return. 352 days.
Weather is desert: dry, highs still near 90, windy, nary a cloud. The hospital staff has 9 docs, 2 of whom never went to med school (they had a bit of training and influential relatives).
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