patient satisfaction rating of good, very good or excellent (Patient satisfaction survey carried out by Howard Warwick & Associates, Jan - Sept 2009)
People whose lives we’ve touched
Sagip-Buhay (Saving Lives)
BMI The Ridgeway Hospital’s resuscitation trainer teaches basic life support skills to communities in the Philippines, using equipment donated by The Ridgeway Hospital.
The project, Sagip-Buhay (Saving Lives), aims to make the public aware of the need to provide basic life support (BLS) to victims of cardiac arrest to improve their chances of survival. The participants help in extending training to families in secluded areas where access to adequate medical facilities is limited. The project aims to train at least one member per family and leaders of the community in BLS. Lifeguards who are members of the City Disaster Coordinating Council (CDCC) are also to be provided with annual training
on BLS.
Resuscitation trainer, Eduardo Sipoy, has taught BLS to community-based workers in Sorsogon City, Philippines. The training targets grassroots communities to improve survival rates for cardiac arrest victims. Participants included community health workers and members of the CDCC. Thanks to Eduardo’s training, a local fireman successfully resuscitated a drowning child. Ed and the fireman both received a commendation from the Mayor of the village.
Helping the blind to see
A voluntary team from BMI Mount Alvernia Hospital comprising Mr Joseph Keenan, Ophthalmic Surgeon, Dr Nigel Payne, Consultant Anaesthetist, Martin Owen, Operating Department Practitioner and Linda Gill, clinic nurse, visited Tarabai Desai Eye Hospital in Jodhpur.
A free eye clinic was held each day and free cataract surgery offered each evening to the local people. As well as helping the blind to see, they distributed over 250 pairs of glasses to patients, all of which had been collected and donated by staff at Mount Alvernia Hospital.
In addition, Dr Payne and Mr Owen spent some of their time reviewing and improving the resuscitation facilities at the hospital. The team also contributed to forums discussing the latest ophthalmic and anaesthetic developments and techniques, met and worked with local fundraisers, and helped to raise the hospital’s profile in the local press.
Into Africa
When Senior Theatre Sister Janet Walker from Aberdeen’s Albyn Hospital heard about the plight of sick children and adults in Gambia from the hospital’s Gambian-born urology surgeon, Professor James N’Dow, she decided to help.
With the support of UROLINK, a charitable organisation supported by the British Association of Urology Surgeons (BAUS), which helps urologists, nurses and technicians give assistance in the developing world, Janet and two BMI urology surgeons make annual visits to Gambia. They spend much of their time trying to educate the local people in Banjul on the importance of sterilisation and other medical procedures.
Gambia is the smallest African nation and among the poorest countries in the world. Poverty is the major cause of a life expectancy of just 50 years. Although the birth rate is the highest in the world, 10 to 20 percent of children die before their fifth birthday. Malaria becomes epidemic in the rainy season from June to November and accounts for a quarter of childhood mortality. Other big killers are malnutrition, tuberculosis, renal disease and hypertension. HIV/AIDS
is a growing problem, too.
Healthcare facilities are basic with only one major hospital, the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in the capital city of Banjul on the West African coast.
