{"id":10683,"date":"2023-09-04T15:28:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/?p=10683"},"modified":"2023-09-04T15:31:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:31:04","slug":"a-virtual-doctor-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/a-virtual-doctor-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"A VIRTUAL DOCTOR IN ZAMBIA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many of our Virtual Doctors volunteer for us because our service gives them the possibility to\u00a0help on a regular basis, not just on a year abroad\u00a0\u2013 armchair volunteering\u00a0if you like! The internet has truly expanded our world. Though it is true that the contact is very\u00a0indirect. And yet,\u00a0one patient case at a time,\u00a0relationships\u00a0build\u00a0between our doctors and our Clinical Officers.\u00a0So\u00a0what happens when a Volunteer Doctor has the opportunity to travel to Zambia and meet the local team and our beneficiaries?\u00a0A fascinating testimonial and some wonderful photos of recently set up\u00a0VDrs\u00a0site the Zambian Helpers\u00a0Society Hospital.\u00a0Read on!<\/em><\/p>\n

I am an Edinburgh-based ophthalmology registrar who volunteers for Virtual Doctors. By coincidence, I ended up moving to Lusaka for 3 months whilst on maternity leave, for my husband\u2019s anaesthetics fellowship. Whilst I was\u00a0there\u00a0I visited the Virtual Doctors admin office in Lusaka, and went on a little semi-rural site visit south of Lusaka. Here are some photos from my\u00a0VDrs\u00a0encounters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Left<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Left to right: Stellah Chilembo (VDrs Field Assistant), Nikki Hall (VDrs volunteer Ophthalmologist) and Shakerrie Allmond (Director of VDrs Zambia) outside the VDrs office in Kalundu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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First of all,\u00a0I visited\u00a0Shakerrie\u00a0and\u00a0Stellah\u00a0in their new Lusaka office in\u00a0Kalundu. I saw\u00a0Stellah\u00a0at work liaising with Clinical Officers and heard about\u00a0Shakerrie\u2018s\u00a0current meetings and plans\u00a0for VD Zambia. We discussed ways of improving the information to volunteer doctors. One of the things I feel as a volunteer is that it\u2019s often difficult to know what sort of a referral centre you are dealing with and how willing\/able they are to refer complex cases. So, in an effort to better describe what the health posts are like to the doctors back home, I decided to visit one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stellah\u00a0kindly arranged this and accompanied me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So, the following week we visited Zambia Helpers Society Hospital in\u00a0Chilanga. This is about 45 min south of Lusaka and is a small public health centre. It was previously a mission hospital\u00a0(now government run)\u00a0and perhaps in part due to this, they have some beautiful gardens and plenty of space, as you can see in the photos below.\u00a0Sister was keen to point out that the gardens are more beautiful when the rains start \u2013 this was last\u00a0month and still very hot and dry!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Zambia<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Zambia Helpers Society Hospital<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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My impression was that it fills the role of a GP surgery in the UK. They cover a rural area with the furthest patients coming from 30km away (often on foot). In addition to the clinical officer (who see 100 or so patients a week there in a daily clinic), there is a nursing team and various other community health services on offer (baby weighing, antenatal, HIV, circumcision) and a tiny lab (which if I remember correctly can test for malaria and HIV, not much else). There is also an observation ward, though there were no inpatients when I visited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Zambia<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Zambia Helpers Society Hospital: view of the main clinic building<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Zambia<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Zambia Helpers Society Hospital: reception area with a VDrs poster<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Zambia<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Zambia Helpers Society Hospital: the lab<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Victor\u00a0Mulenga,\u00a0the\u00a0Clinical Officer, kindly showed us round and introduced me to his colleagues.\u00a0We worked out we had discussed two cases\u00a0remotely on VD\u00a0back in May this year.\u00a0We chatted about patient care\u00a0in this clinic.\u00a0One thing that surprised me was how little they refer patients up to hospital. With the transport and hospital costs involved it is often not something patients and families are keen on either. Victor estimates they refer about 1\u00a0per\u00a0month to hospital (out of 400-500\u00a0patients\u00a0seen). Given how often I have been recommending referral to up for further investigation or to see an ophthalmologist\/eye clinic, this was useful to me; I think I will try harder to give advice for managing cases locally. The other thing\u00a0is that a rapid briefer response is\u00a0usually\u00a0more useful than a delayed but more considered one, as\u00a0Victor told me\u00a0patients will often wait an hour or so max before trekking off home\u00a0(though of course sometimes they will be contactable by phone after this).\u00a0He often asks them to wait on the off chance that a quick reply from\u00a0VD with diagnosis\/management will be forthcoming.\u00a0As someone who often spends a bit of time on cases\u00a0if I can (for my own benefit too), I may try a\u00a0two pronged\u00a0approach of a quick reply when\u00a0possible backed up by any educational bits later.<\/p>\n

I hope this gives some of the other virtual doctors back in the UK a\u00a0flavour of Zambia. It is a beautiful and welcoming country, and I highly recommend a visit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Zambia<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Zambia Helpers Society Hospital: Victor Mulenga (CO) in his consulting room<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Victor<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Victor (CO) and Stellah (VDrs admin) in the reception area of Zambia Helpers Society Hospital<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Right<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Right to left: Nikki with Fergus (8 months), Victor (CO), Sister and one their nursing colleagues<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when a Volunteer Doctor has the opportunity to travel to Zambia and meet the local team and our beneficiaries? A fascinating testimonial and some wonderful photos of recently set up VDrs site the Zambian Helpers Society Hospital. Read on! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10702,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10683\/revisions\/10702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/VirtualDoctorsUSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}