First of all, on behalf of the hospital management team and all our hospital staff, we would like to wish you all the best in 2017.  We are very grateful for your friendship and support and we are sure that 2017 will be a new year with new opportunities to improve our health facility.

With the support of one of our donors, the hospital staff had a fabulous staff party on December 8th 2016 – a way of saying thanks for all their hard work in the last year.

And to show that commitment and hard work pays off, we are all proud to share with you the results of SafeCare, a collaboration between CSSC (Christian Social Society Commission), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the faith-based health facilities in Tanzania.

It is a program developed to assess the quality of care and the progress of health facilities in Tanzania.

HERE ARE OUR RESULTS:

Results 2015: results

 

Results 2016

1.    General remarks and actions taken

Monthly and weekly meetings continue as usual.  During a meeting in October, the hospital management prepared for the first time a CHOP,  a Comprehensive Hospital Operational Plan.  This plan helps us with preparing a detailed budget and assisted in identifying the biggest needs of the hospital in 2017.

We will share our statistics of 2016 and our plans for 2017 in the annual report of 2016.

Besides of the CHOP, several other issues were discussed during the meetings:

1. Shortage of staff – a strategic plan (as part of the CHOP) is made to replace retired staff and to hire an additional 4-6 nurses over the year 2017.
2. Start of the physiotherapy department – more info see 2 constructions and renovations.
3. Donors and support – an overview was given to all HOD regarding the donors and support received in 2016.  Also the donor visits and donations for the beginning of 2017 were discussed.  Additionally departments were asked to write down their biggest needs so these needs could be shared by the management to the donors.
4. Educational sessions- the need for educational sessions has been present for a long time. A couple of successful and less successful attempts were made to organise educational sessions for staff after the church service on Thursday at the church.  In order to ensure more continuous educational sessions, it was decided that Dr. Mollel will be the coordinator and the sessions will be held at the class room.

2.    Constructions and renovations

In our last newsletter we reported on the progress of several renovation projects such as the OPD (Out Patient Clinic), palliative care department and the minor theatre.  All the staff of these departments enjoy their renovated offices/spaces.

During the months of September-December, we focussed on renovating the floor of the male ward.  This floor was old and contained a lot of holes.  This made cleaning very difficult and impacted therefore the hygienic situation of our patients admitted in the ward.

This renovation was possible with the money we received from DIAKO hospital through the sale of the container they brought to the hospital.

Also a new department started – the much and highly needed physiotherapy.  Since mid-October the hospital has its own trained physiotherapist.  By the end of December he already had 50 out patients and takes care of all patients admitted in the ward.  This service is a wonderful step towards improving quality care for our patients.

With this new department, we selected an existing empty building to be transformed into a physiotherapy room.  With the donations of Wereldmissiehulp (Belgium), the work will start in January 2017.  We will share the final results in our next newsletter.

 

3.    Visitors

In November we had Nancy and her husband Brent visiting the hospital for a period of two weeks.  Nancy is a scrub nurse and is very experienced with the work in the major theatre.  Previously she joined medical team with Dr. Rob (general surgery) who organised multiple missions to the hospital.

This time she came specifically to train the nursing staff in theatre on sterilisation techniques, while her husband assisted us with the repair of medical equipment.

It was a pleasure to have them here and we hope to see them again in the future.

Other interested Doctors and friends visited the hospital and we were very happy to have received once again useful medical supplies.

 

4.    Our students

We receive regular updates from our students.  We are looking forward to see Praygod back full time at the hospital when he finishes his education coming August.  For the first time, the hospital will have a trained and skilled radiographer.

Especially Samwel and Jackson are very excited to have started university.  We are waiting to see their first exam results but are confident that they will be successful in their studies.

 

5.    Challenges

Thanks to the assistance of Feuerkinderteam (Germany) in collaboration with different Rotary clubs and ELCA Greater Milwaukee Synod, we are very happy to tell you that a grant will be given to the hospital to buy a new X-ray device.  We are proceeding with the grant and will from there onwards proceed with the purchase and installation of the machine.

Meanwhile the room is being cleared of the old device and steps are taken to prepare the room for the new X-ray.

From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to say thanks again to all donors and friends who have helped us and continue to believe in us.  The hospital is grateful to know that so many believe together with us that we can go for it- for quality health care for each individual.

We love to hear your remarks/suggestions.

Please contact us on Tanyavanbraekel@hotmail.com