Today was extremely noisy and disruptive and we had to relocate patients temporarily while we removed ancient cabinets which had rusted "into" the rotting flooring.
Next, we enlarged the tiny store room to form a new paediatric consultation and minor-procedure room (for lumbar punctures, stitches, plaster casts etc.).
To do this, we removed an old decaying partition and created a new better quality one using wood paneling.
Cliff and the Tshemba foundation team did an expert job 👷🏾♂️👷🏾♂️👷🏾♂️
Partition frame in progress...
Partition DONE and ready to be plastered and painted tomorrow
You may have noticed the completely senseless original architectural design of these rooms: placing 4 doors in each tiny space (2 on each side and thus communicating between the outpatients clinic and the ER...🤦🏼♀️
The result is that patients get confused about which door is which and enter randomly into consultation rooms and even shamelessly use them as passageways to the outpatient department on the other side.
It has become such a common issue that no one even blinks any more when a random person enters a "private" consultation in the middle of an intimate exam 😳.
To stop this, we will be permanently locking the doors, removing the handles and plastering over them. Only ONE (new) door will remain for these consult rooms (that can be locked to secure privacy).
Finally, we were all extremely happy to see the ancient surgical lights from the 1960's removed from the resus room. They were not only completely non-functional and an embarrassment to modern medicine, but also an electrocution risk.
Second coat of paint in the resus room DONE. Rotten flooring REMOVED. Drug and emergency trolleys scrubbed clean
And all this latter work was performed by Jackie and his wife, Nkateko.
Amazingly, Jackie and Poeletso have offered to work all night tonight too, so that they can finish the most disruptive jobs at the time of the lowest patient flows and speed up the whole process.
Tonight:
Stripping the walls of the 2 new consultation rooms of rotted vinyl and rusted cabinets to prepare for plastering.
Tomorrow:
1) Plastering the 2 new consultation rooms (the return of Yankie KaJeff Enterprise)
2) Fixing the plumbing and electrical sockets (Thank-you Mduduzi!)
3) Continuing to clean up and organise stock
4) Searching for a donor for our very sad flooring situation (USD 5000)
5) Buying wood for the wall bumper (to protect it from bumps and scratches) and shelving
6) Starting to paint the door/window frames (a night shift with Jackie and Poeletso, so that fewer people touch the new paintwork)