Time

As mentioned on the 'live' page, the urgent need in the area is to get help out to the remote villages so the first year (Feb 2007-Feb 2008) will therefore be used to start the outreach programme. This will initially operate from rented accommodation to enable us to quickly get help out to where it is needed.

The programme will start with one doctor, two or three nurses and a driver. We will purchase suitable transport to enable them to carry out their work. During the first year we will liaise with village elders to identify suitable women in each village who will be trained to dispense basic medicines without a doctor’s prescription. This will enable them to provide interim care until the doctor or nurse’s next visit. We will also use year one to identify suitable land for the base hospital and make plans for its construction. In addition, we will look at the recruitment of a skeleton base of non medical hospital staff, and spend time liaising with Government officials, village elders, students and teachers to help move the project forward.

The second year (Feb 2008 to Feb 2009) and third year (Feb 2009 to Feb 2010) will consist of buying the land, starting the construction of the hospital buildings, acquiring more vehicles and equipment and hiring medical and further non-medical staff. Initially, a gynaecologist, an anaesthetist, a paediatrician and two junior doctors or family medicine specialists will be required. This will be expanded with a general surgeon, an internal medicine specialist and a pathologist, who will be essential as we require a blood bank – at present it takes between 6-8 hours to get a bottle of blood to a patient! The date for opening the hospital cannot be cast in stone due to the nature of the project but we hope that by June 2010 the hospital will be open and fully functioning. By this time the outreach programme will have been running for three years, taking sophisticated medical care out to the hill villages on a regular basis.