A hospital’s request for assistance

30 August 2010

With an 80 year-old sterilizer and no X-Ray machine, effective health treatment is difficult for a hospital in the Nigerian town of Wusasa. 

The newly appointed chairman of Saint Luke’s Hospital in Wusasa, Nigeria visited Camden last week in hope of securing relationships to fund urgent improvements.

Professor Butcher Danaladi Jonathan George presented his requests to a Camden Rotary Club meeting on Thursday. “We are hoping for some redress,” said Professor Jonathon George. “Quite a lot of our instruments are obsolete.”

“One of the sterilisers we have has been there since 1930. Incidentally it is still in use,” he said. The hospital appreciates all donations, “even a 30-year old autoclave is newer than ours made in the thirties” he said.

Mr John Saunderson, Camden Rotary President-elect, said he was keen to discuss a partnership. “The presentation was moving,” he said. “We hope to determine a potential sponsorship plan at our next executive meeting.”

The once accredited Nigerian teaching hospital was established by British medical missionaries in 1929 and became “second to none in that area,” said the Professor. However, recent decades of poor financial management led to its loss of educational endorsement and its eventual rundown.

The private hospital suffers severely from Islamic extremist persecution and corruption. “We don’t have any sort of allocations from the government so therefore we had to stay on our feet,” Professor George said. “We make some small money from rural churches and of course that is not sustainable.”

In presentations to Camden Anglican, Professor George explained the steps needed to regain status as a quality training facility. “We have installed benches for our nursing school and only need a roof to finish our medical lecture room,” he said. “Paying our staff is our first priority.

“For months staff went with no pay. You cannot operate a hospital without nurses. Building projects just have to wait,” he said.

Recently two American Rotary clubs donated medical equipment.

“Now we have brand new generators 100 KVA, we have a blood bank where we can store blood, we also have a HIV/ Aids Screening unit where we screen the blood,” he said.

The Professor was hosted by Camden Anglican.