Back home one of the common complaints across hospitals is
that the food is terrible. Having
experienced patient life first hand I can attest to the fact that the rumors
are indeed true. When you have a hard
time deciding if what is in the mug is supposed to be coffee or vegetable soup
you know you should look elsewhere for your next meal. The hospitals here in Togo have it figured
out pretty well….they just don’t serve food at all. They have then completely avoided all of the
usual complaints. J
Actually, being in the hospital is an entire family affair. No one can be admitted to the hospital by
themselves because they need to bring family members to come and help care for
them. It is the members of the pt’s
family that do the cooking and provide all of their meals. They also do the laundry, bathe the pt and
supply them with blankets and clothing.
Such a different way of doing things than back home. Consequently it is important for the hospital
to have some extensive grounds so that members of the family can cook and do
wash (all of which is done outside). At
night, the family members sleep on the tile floor next to the pt’s bed. Each ward consists of one big room with beds
lined up next to each other on either side.
Privacy isn’t something many seem really all that concerned about. Between the pts and their families you can
pack a lot of sleeping people into one ward.
It is always interesting as the practitioner when I get called to see a
pt in the middle of the night and have to step over a bunch of sleeping bodies
to even reach the pt’s bedside.
Sometimes back home we joke about the hospital being more
like a hotel. The laundry is done every
day, the pts get room service with their meals set right next to their bed and
they even have a menu to choose from. It
is not completely unheard of for a pt to request to stay much longer than
medically necessary because they feel well cared for and are lacking nothing. I guess that speaks highly of our medical
care, but it can be frustrating on the practitioner side of things to have pts
in the hospital who don’t really need to be there. Funny, this is never an issue in Togo. With the family being burdened to care for
the pt’s needs and thus having to be away from home as well as with the lack of
health insurance and the personal responsibility of having to pay for the
hospital bill, pts are more than willing to leave when the time is right. We did have one father offer to bribe us to
release his premature son from the hospital early due to the mounting
inconvenience of the things I have just mentioned. No, we did not accept the bribe or discharge
the baby, but it is such a different attitude than what we sometimes struggle
with back home.
It has been raining all afternoon! The thunder rolled over the mountains behind
us just after lunch and it has been steadily coming down ever since. I never thought I would be so excited for
rain, but what a refreshing break from the heat. I am on call tonight and might be sloshing my
way to the hospital on the muddy dirt path between the guest house and L&D,
but I am not sure that I even care! Oh
so nice to be excited about the simple things in life!
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