November 19

The hospital that I have been working at here is in bad shape financially. They have been forced to reduce some of the services levels offered as well as not being able to physically reach out into communities that lie in the outer regions of their servicing area. The negative impact of this is that many of the people targeted for HIV /AIDs testing and counseling will need to travel to the mission hospital to complete the test... This may not happen because of the distance they must travel between 20 and 30 KM.
The medical supplies that we brought from Canada were very much appreciated and used to restock the pharmacy. Unfortunately the escalating cost of drugs has also contributed to the financial strain of the hospital. The hospital ran into difficulties back in 2007 and 2008 when they lost a shipping container of medical supplies in a transport accident, leaving the hospital short of drugs and forcing them to restock the pharmacy inventory from local drug suppliers. The cost of carrying this debt has put a huge financial strian on the hospital and has had a rippling effect through out the entire organization, including staffing. The constantly revolving personnel has made it extremly difficult to maintain servicing standards, as well trained and experienced staff are being repalced by less experenced staff requiring additional training. These training cost contribute to the finacial burden of the hospital and put extreme pressure on service levels the hospital provides to the community.....it is a terrible circle that they find themselves in.