Boosting Bregma

 Yotkom Uganda has a particular interest in building up the strength of an existing primary health care clinic in Kitgum, called Bregma Clinic. This clinic has been established and run by Dr Vincent Oringa but has been struggling.
WE have been partnering together to boost Bregma over the past  3 weeks.
The waiting room had a TV with some pretty  average satellite programs. We have bought a DVD player and will be showing some patient education and health promotion material for people waiting .

Bregma reception and waiting area

A Vaccination program has been started and an experienced immunisation professional employed to head this up. Not only childhood vaccinations but we also hope to be able to stock HepB and rabies vaccination. These diseases are of major concern here and hospitals often do not have them in stock.

One of Bregma Clinical Officers, George, stands beside the vaccination clinic timetable

Bregma Lab technician, Cyclops, checking for malaria parasites  on the blood film

two nurses work each day shift, and one at night in Bregma Clinic

This week six hand washing stands were constructed locally and installed around the clinic to help staff and patients with regular handwashing. Its a simple part of good hygiene but often very difficult to make accessible in these environments.

We have set up a reference library of textbooks brought from Australia and also some great medical resources in a computer based library. The internet will also open up some good opportunities for improving clinical practice and doing evidence based medicine.

The last couple of days have been really encouraging since we have had electricity ! This has allowed us to set up  a network of three computers in the Bregma Clinic for the use of the medical practitioners. In their consultations they will be using an Australian medical software program called Best Practice.

by next week Bregma will have three consulting rooms, each with a computer. We will have much improved patient records and a readily accessible data base to assist with research and management

Its been quite a struggle, but with the help of Graham Hambly, the IT consultant at Baywest Medical centre in Brisbane, we are on the verge of making it with our computers !  Much thanks to Graham for skyping over several hours and logging on to our server computer from Australia. Amazing ! The Acholi team at Bregma have given him a name , "Oteka" which means "the great one "  and they really appreciate him joining in with their struggles!

Friday we have had our third leadership team meeting for Yotkom Uganda
Dr Charles, Richard Yulam,Dr Vincent, Peter Omara, Dr Andrew, Justin Otim