After our meeting with Regional Director Awoonor-Williams, we met with the medical director of Bawku District Hospital. He was currently on site for a construction project to erect an eye clinic outside of Bolgatanga. This is what really kicked off our "Super Tour" of the Upper East Region. From this meeting we went on to Bongo, then to the War Memorial Hospital in Navrango. We used Bolgatanga as our base camp for the night, and woke up in the morning to visit the Zebilla Hospital in Bawku West, and then WaleWale Hospital. The first five hospitals are going to be the recipients for the two current shipments. We wanted to go and introduce ourselves to the medical directors so they would have a better idea about what MedPLUS aims to do. Our site visits were awesome. The doctors and nursing staff are truly inspirational in their dedication and desire to improve healthcare for their patients.
Dr. Al-Hassan said it perfectly: it is beyond frustrating to have the medical knowledge but lack the necessary resources and supplies. It was pretty amazing to actually see the sites that will benefit from these current two shipments. We got the chance to see maternity wards, pediatric units, threatres (operating rooms), and more. While some of the hospitals were better-equiped than others, there was clearly an overall need. This example should give you an idea of what I mean: the best case scenario in terms of x-ray was a machine from the 1970s. Not exaggerating.