LAMB NEWS – MAY 21ST, 2010
Apologies for missing two monthly newsletters. It has been a bit busy at LAMB.
The full rainy season is getting close – the more than 5 months of dry season came to an end with a bang a month or so ago. Huge spectacular thunderstorms over three nights, and very high winds killed about 150 people across a narrow strip of India and Bangladesh. LAMB was lucky. Serious damage was limited to our telephone system hit by lightning – about US$ 3,000 worth of damage
The hospital is mainly fine, but we are now without a general surgeon. The LAMB surgeon for the past 6 years – an outstanding surgeon, and also a great Christian teacher and mentor with a long life of missionary service behind him – is back in the US . We still have consultants for Caesareans and gynaecological operations, but the broad range of work that the general surgeon did – including such things as appendectomies, burns treatment and skin grafts, cleft lip and palate repairs, amputations and tumor removals – we cannot do. LAMB has been in this position before, but it is obviously not welcome. We are looking urgently both for short term cover and for a long term replacement.
Last month we had a big consultation session with representatives from communities that LAMB serves. Clearly they think that we are very competent – they would like us to build a Medical School to train doctors (which is truthfully way beyond us) - but they also gave us some ideas for non-medical improvements. What we have been doing, and will continue for a while yet, is to try and reduce registration waiting times, provide more seating, provide more information and help, and generally make their time at the hospital less hassle. LAMB is already quite good, but we know we can do better.
The Training Centre – freshly painted – is now overflowing with trainees, and two rooms in another building are now also in use for trainee accommodation. A very large proportion of the training at LAMB is maternity focused, and the huge need within Bangladesh can be judged by the fact that less than one in five births takes place with a trained person in attendance. With this great need, it is easy to understand why there is a lot of encouragement for LAMB to build a third floor on the Training Centre.
LAMB seems to be becoming a little better known. An article about LAMB, written by a medical student who came to LAMB for experience last year, has been published in the DFID (the UK equivalent of USAID) development magazine. One of the donors to the LAMB disability program has also asked for an article for their annual review. LAMB also now seems to be increasingly a potential partner for work programs because of the Training Centre, the research unit, and the community and hospital programs. We wait and see how far these interests develop, but it is a very active time.
This newsletter started with an apology for missing monthly newsletters. What has been keeping us busy? The hospital has been very busy. The Training Centre is overflowing. For the Community Health and Development Program we have needed to submit two - new for us - project proposals. We are developing plans for a Nurse Training Institute, for an extra floor on top of the Training Centre, and for a new housing block. The school is pursuing registration under the Bangladesh Government system. At the same time, we are finding out information for a major look at the future.
And at the same time as trying to serve the people better in all the above ways, we are also very actively looking afresh at what we should be doing as a Christian organization. We have been blessed with lots of talent and support and we feel we should be making best use of all that we have been provided.
