LAMB NEWS – SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2009

Greetings again from LAMB.

Here at LAMB, ‘baby season’ has arrived again – at just about the normal time of year. From end of August/ beginning of September, for a period of about 6 weeks, the number of babies being born at the hospital always seems to rise by about 25%. So, it is a very busy time – really hard work - for the already busy midwives and obstetricians. Some weeks on average 13 babies are being born in the hospital every day – compared to 7 per day or even less in quieter times. The maternity ward has overflowed into other wards, and the hospital beds are filling up.

It is not just the midwives and obstetricians that are busy, since many of the babies often have problems through being underweight or other sicknesses related to their environment. So the paediatricians too are very much occupied.

The Training Centre is also back in full swing, after a few weeks of relative quiet when the trainers could do some updating of their courses. It is now fully loaded for the next 6 months. The biggest demand by far is for training related to maternity. In general the training courses are not for qualified midwives, but rather are for lower levels of skill. The situation in Bangladesh is such that even providing a fairly limited level of delivery skills can make a big step up in saving lives compared to the current alternative, which is very often a family member or local untrained woman. It is a good feeling to be part of this big improvement for Bangladesh.

At the Hospital site, this has been a less happy week. Because of the financial situation, 15 out 370 non-field staff have been told that they are being laid off. A few are long-serving. There are several reasons for this action. The first is that because of a Government voucher scheme to encourage free care for pregnant women at Government facilities, the number of in-patients to LAMB has dropped, and is now below the number in 2006 when we expanded the hospital. Our costs have gone up faster than our income, in particular salaries and the Poor Fund subsidies to poor patients. Two large grants for work in the community have come to an end, with no other work yet to follow – although there are good possibilities in sight. And lastly, because of the global financial problems, and the fall in the value of the UK pound, there is a decline in the income we receive from overseas.

We are also taking other measures, including converting a separate area of one of the larger wards into an area without full nursing, for patients ready for discharge. We will still be able to bring the area back into full nursing use fairly quickly if so needed, and in the case of emergencies can staff it through extra working, but it will lower our costs in the meantime.

We hope that out of adversity will come strength for LAMB, but for those who will leave this is very difficult. So we would be very grateful for your prayers for them, and that we are doing the right things.