Fri 9th July 2010

GOLI WELCOMES FIRST IN-PATIENTS

GOLI HOSPITAL, Southern Sudan has welcomed its first patients to the recently dedicated In-Patient Department. The Hospital, funded primarily by UK charity Medic Assist International and implemented by local partners, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sudan, was officially dedicated on Saturday 5th June 2010. Monday 5th July 2010 saw the first patients being admitted. Video of the opening

The first patient was an elderly woman, aged 64 years old. She was shortly followed by a three month old baby. Both were suffering from malaria, with the baby suffering from cerebral malaria.

Clinical Officer In-Charge of the In-Patient Department, Timothy Wamuya, said “Recently, we are seeing around 30 patients per day in the Out-Patient Department. When we saw patients who were very ill, we were having to treat them as best we could and send them home, knowing that many of them would not get the medical care they needed. But now the in-patient is open we have been able to admit these seriously ill patients and give them the medical care they need. When this baby came with very severe malaria, she required immediate admission and IV treatment. This type of malaria is particularly common in children and can result in very fast deterioration. The baby has been admitted now for 24 hours and is showing good signs of improvement.”

The hospital also began its first ante-natal group on Monday 5th July 2010. Following advertising in the local community, 20 pregnant mothers attended the hospital for health advice from Community Health Worker, Matthew Bashiir, and Midwife, Joyce Philip. The mothers have also been registered into the ante-natal programme and have been advised to seek regular check-ups.

Bishop Elias Taban of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church said “This is a blessed day for the community that this In-Patient Department is now open. The vision for this hospital came from a desire to help those in the Mundu community who have been disadvantaged for many years. Particularly, we wanted to help the most vulnerable in society; children, pregnant mothers and elderly women. We have seen, with the opening of the In-Patient Department and the beginning of the ante natal care that this vision is becoming a reality.”

"We would love to recruit a UK doctor who would be willing to work at Goli for two to three years," said John Earwicker, MAI Executive Director.  "We have volunteer medics who are committed to regular short term assingments there but real progress in developing staff and treatments would be assisted by a full time doctor who shares the vision of bringing excellent healthcare to the poorest and most neglected peoples of our world."

Bishop Taban of EPC will be visiting the UK in September 2010.

Reported by Thomas McNeil with additional reporting from John Earwicker; 8 July 2010

< Back to previous page