0
The Western Trust’s Vision 2020 team members are busy making plans for their return visit to the ECWA Eye Hospital. The newest team member, Graham McFarlane, will be travelling with Rosie, Kathleen, Yvonne, Richard and David to Kano from the 17th to the 24th of April. Our previous visit in September and the subsequent visit of our Nigerian friends to the Western Trust in November were very useful fact-finding missions designed to help both teams create a training and development program for the dedicated Kano staff. This time we will be spending the whole week working alongside Dr Abuh and his team in clinics and theatres, with the aim of putting this program into action. The work of each team member will contribute towards improving each patient’s treatment journey – from arrival at the ECWA hospital to assessment and management of their condition.
For example, David and Richard will be training three ECWA staff members to accurately assess vision and binocular vision (the ability to use our two eyes together) in children. This information is very valuable to Dr Abuh when deciding how to treat children in his clinics, eg those with cataracts. Meanwhile, Graham will be providing engineering support by carrying out essential maintenance on specialist equipment used in clinics and theatres. Crucially, he will also be training ECWA staff how to carry out this maintenance for themselves. Kathleen will be working closely with the anaesthetic staff in Kano to help with developing their children’s theatre service while Yvonne will be using her skills as a theatre sister to help theatre staff improve their organisation and efficiency with limited resources.
As childhood cataracts make up a significant part of Dr Abuh’s caseload, Rosie will be helping him to develop his service to these patients. Dr Abuh has also requested extra training in the assessment and treatment of patients with squints. David and Rosie will be providing training on assessment while Rosie will also be enhancing Dr Abuh’s surgical skills with these patients. To make the best use of our time in Kano, our colleagues there are currently selecting the most appropriate patients for our week with them. However, having seen first-hand how busy and well-respected the ECWA hospital is, we are sure there will be a few surprises there for us too!
So, the countdown to our visit is on. We’re busy working on our teaching plans and preparing for our journey in April. Most of all, we’re all really looking forward to being back in Kano and renewing friendships with our colleagues there.