With the new operating block at St Matthieu Hospital Centre in Bukavu nearing completion, we had to get our act together on equipping it. It is not easy finding high quality, low cost, appropriate equipment that will be very robust and not consume huge amounts of power.
Just at the right time we were very blessed to meet Tim Beacon from Medaid, a UK based charity that specialises in sending reconditioned or new surgical kit to front line hospitals in Africa. This equipment is being purchased from funds raised from our special Christmas appeal, and from regular giving to Semiliki. Medaid have also added lots of high quality surgical kit that we are thrilled to receive.
The Ecoclave is a special autoclave for sterilising surgical equipment. It runs off solid fuel, but only uses about a shoe box of wood or charcoal to run a whole sterilisation cycle, which will mean huge cost savings for St Matthieu. Tim and team have been fantastic in locating appropriate equipment, in assembling it, quality checking it, and have spent days getting it together and packing it. It was flown to Entebbe, Uganda on the night of Monday 13th June, with Tim flying out in the same plane. Tim is there to oversee this and a much larger order and to ensure that his Ugandan logistics contractor really will be able to get it across to Congo.
We’d love to raise more money to equip other operating theatres with urgent equipment, and Medaid would be a great organisation to supply us. If anyone would like to organise fund raising for a hospital, please do get in touch!
