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| October
2012 Report - Another big step for Acheru. |
| By now the
interviews should have taken place to appoint a physiotherapist
to replace Paul. I think there were a number of applicants who
seemed suitable, so I hope to have more news soon. |
| We are now in
agreement about how the Acheru work should be developed in
northern Uganda. Sam went to Minakulu recently to finalise our
memorandum of understanding with the health centre we will be
working from, and local staff should be appointed soon. The aim
is to start with an orthopaedic officer, a nurse, and a
community based rehabilitation worker, with the possibility of
taking on a physiotherapist later. We need to prepare and equip
examination and treatment facilities at Minakulu, and I hope
soon to send out some suitable equipment by air freight. |
| This is another
big step for Acheru, and we will be monitoring it very
carefully. We hope many more children can be helped. I think to
start with we will be looking at a backlog of surgical cases,
but it’s our hope that effective outpatient and community
work can also be developed. We are doing all we can to ensure
that we are working in cooperation with any other agencies in
the area, and we hope to be able to accept referrals from them. |
| Working in the
north means Acheru should now be treating many more children. We
have to pay hospital costs for all those we refer for surgery,
and although these are subsidised, it is becoming an increasing
burden. Our agreement on costs runs to the end of this year, and
we hope as soon as possible that we can finalise what the
charges will be after that, so that we can look at budgets. We
have never had to turn away a child because of expense, and we
hope we never have to. |
| Brian Dorman |
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