Elective Experience
Livingstone General Hospital, Zambia 2010
As part of the third curriculum, students are required to complete a four week elective in the setting of their choice in the summer of that year. A large proportion of the class engage in MOVE, Medical Overseas Voluntary Electives. I along with six of my classmates travelled to Livingstone in Zambia.
Livingstone General Hospital, (LGH) is a 300 bed regional hospital in Zambia. It has a wide variety of departments, Medical, Surgical, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Neo-natal, Psychiatry and also Ophthalmology. We rotated through the specialties on a weekly basis, having an opportunity to be involved in whatever we were particularly interested in.
The experience was unforgettable. It was not quite what I was expecting in some ways. It gave us an excellent understanding of the differences between the Irish and Zambian health systems. In Zambia resources are obviously much more limited and their level of technology out dated. Our hospital was lucky to have an x-ray and ultrasound machine. The general ethos is also different. Apathy was much more apparent than I expected. Many doctors began work at 9.00am and had left by 11.00am leaving only Medical Officers to care for sometimes acutely ill patients. In the surgical department the emphasis was more on who had paid their fee rather than who was in greatest need. One morning for example, all of the patients who had been brought upstairs awaiting surgery were transferred back to the ward as it was realised they had not paid.
However this is not to diminish the wonderful work that many of the staff in the hospital did on a daily basis. The main problem was a lack of appropriate management with discrepancies between departments. One of the doctors asked some of our group for donations towards their wages, which we thought inappropriate. We had the ability to become active members of the team which was hugely beneficial but also quite overwhelming. At times I felt we were given more responsibility than I felt comfortable with. However we learnt a huge amount about diseases you can only hope to read about in the Irish setting. The money that we raised was used to purchase different types of equipment. For example, oxygen concentrators for the neo-natal were purchased as a number of deaths had been associated with faulty equipment. It was worth doing the elective to have been able to give this contribution.
We were also given an excellent insight into the HIV/AIDS epidemic. HAART therapy was free to all patients. This was in partnership with the American government who had given a sizeable contribution to the hospital, building Medical & Paediatric wings.
We ‘googled’ the hospital and eventually after numerous emails we were received a positive reply. We had to pay a fee of $200 each to the hospital.
A word of warning; while Africa is an amazing place where you will have incredible experiences, students need to be prepared! Get your vaccines in time; Hep B level checked etc. Also be aware of your personal safety, get taxis after dark and try to stay in groups.
Lastly have a BLAST!!
Ann-Marie