PGH (Provincial General Hospital)

This is large general hospital that services most of the rift valley, services are not free but conciderably cheaper than private hospitals. I had been told by Keranga (our rep her in Kenya) that it would be advisable to start at least working in Nakuru Nursing home as PGH was likely to scare me off, he was right.
So this monday, after meeting with the superintendant on friday, I came to PGH looking for more work as at present Nakuru Nursing Home has only 5 patients. believe me there is more work.
The place is living hell, there are no mozi nets, the windows are broken, the celing is cracked as is the paint, 50 patients to a ward many sharing beds and only 3 nurses to care for them all, that is on a good day- yesterday there wre 2nurses and me.
The place is FILTHY, flies everywhere and what overwealmes you the most is the smell. There is only one long drop toilet for all of these patents and one tap.
The floors are mopped but that is about it.
One of the duties that I was assigned yesterday was to make the beds with the nurses, pretty difficult concidering the matresses are falling appart, there are not enough clean sheats and the 'clean sheats' are covered in holes, stains from urine and blood and do not aptly cover the beds. So I was made to make the hard decision of who to give new sheats to and who could wait till tomorrow when the same situation would occur.
The patients: PGH has around 4000 patients admitted per month, at any one time 15 wards with aroud 50 patents. This week I have been on ward, a mens medical ward. There I have seen a glimpse of hell. Here are just a fw cases:

• there is a prisoner who accidentally sawed off three of his fingers and thumb with a chain saw whilst chopping wood, the wound is septic and he cannot afford painkillers
• there is a man who has been in the ward for FOUR MONTHS as he has seveare burns (bear in mind here that there is also another whole ward dedicated to burns) and his family live too far away to visit, he cannot afford to be transfered.
• there is another man who's feet are stupps and has burns whith some kid of mould growing on them all over his legs and arms, he is close to a corpse
• a young boy of 15 with an ingrown testes, it has been operated on but how a wound can heal safely here I do not know- last week there was a mother in Nakuru nursing Home (about my age) who had had a cesareian at PGH but the would had gone septic so she had come to NNH to have it sorted out. With beds so close together cross contamination is sure to occur.
• There are numerous cases of men that have been beaten up in the street so have head inguries, the worst of which greans constantly and thrashes around.

these are just a few.

BUT what amazes me is that today when i asked one of them how he was feeling, this was a post operative case, he said oh about 96% not 100% yet but almost, how they can be so positive i do not know.