From Aberdeen (Sierra Leone)

I apologise for the big gap in my blog, which has not quite followed my progress as intended.

The truth is, there have been some changes in what I am doing and where I am working since my last post.

I have also been home for a while, and had a lovely time being back, seeing family and friends and going to a special wedding.

Now I am back in Freetown, Sierra Leone and working again.

Unfortunately, for a multitude of reasons, my VSO placement at PCMH was not viable for me in the long-term. Those of you who know me will have had more of a chance to discuss reasons for this, but basically I wasn’t doing what I intended to do and was quite unhappy with some of the things I did have to do. I think ultimately PCMH was just too big and dysfunctional for one volunteer to be able to go in and be expected to fix it!

VSO were understanding of the issues and my feelings, and they will (and are) continue to place volunteers in various health placements in Sierra Leone.

For me, meanwhile, there was a period of doubt wondering if it was time for me to go home for good, but also feeling that I had not really carried out what I came to Sierra Leone to do. As it happens, at the same time as I was looking to work, the centre with my original contact was looking for a doctor. Aberdeen Women’s Centre is a charity hospital providing free care for women and children. It is based in the area of Freetown called Aberdeen. There is a surgical unit which assesses and treats obsetric fistula (women who develop a hole between bladder or bowel and the birth canal as a result of problems in labour). They also have a maternity unit which aims to look after women antenatally and during birth so that they don’t develop a fistula! And they have a children’s out-patient clinic seeing up to 90 children per day to diagnose and treat the range of diseases they are vulnerable to here.

I have come to work in the maternity unit, which delivers up to 120 women per month and also has antenatal clinic and in-patient ward. We have access to the operating theatre for emergency surgery whenever we need it. There is a nurse anaesthetist on call available as well.

I am the only full-time obstetric doctor for the maternity unit. I have accommodation provided here onsite along with a few other international staff who work in the fistula unit and children’s clinic. Most of the other staff are national, and we do have a few Sierra Leonean doctors who will cover occasional nights when I can be off.

AWC is a great place to work, and is really trying to provide a good standard of basic care to women who desperately need it. The midwives, who go out looking for pregnant women to book, target the slum areas and pregnant teenagers. The centre has managed to achieve very good outcomes for patients through the use of evidence-based guidelines and protocols adapted to the local setting. It is very interesting to work with all the conditions that you come across in this setting, but I am grateful now to have access to medical and surgical resources to tackle them with.

We are fortunate to be able to limit our numbers and raise our standards in a way PCMH could not do, and do not take outside referrals. We try to treat our patients with respect and it is touching how grateful they are to receive proper care – in this place you never feel taken for granted!

Sorry the blog is more facts than fun today, this is the update, hopefully things now are going to get a bit more settled and I will write again.

Meanwhile, just keep in touch and I will keep on delivering more babies.

  Picture with one of the midwives at AWC.

Our logo and one of our ladies.