THE ROTARY DOCTOR BANK of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND.

I am very pleased to report that the Rotary Club of Cardiff West has received approval for a Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation for support at The Mother of Mercy Hospital at Kyengera, a deprived part of Kampala.

The project is to equip a neonatal ward and a dental clinic at the hospital, also to fund a Vocational Training Team of Midwives to visit the hospital every year for the next three years to provide training. The team will be led by PDG Gillian Pearce.

We will start implementing the project as soon as possible. Many thanks to all who have worked so hard to make this possible.

As part of the Mother of Mercy Hospital refurbishment project, the Rotary Club of Reading Matins obtained a District Grant to pay for the installation of a computer management system to handle patient records, financial record keeping and management of medicines, which means that the hospital’s record systems are now virtually paperless.  This works very well until one of the frequent powercuts occurs; at this point the desktop computers stop working.

The only solution was to purchase seven laptops computers with built-in batteries that will keep the system running during powercuts.  This will not only make record keeping much easier and more seamless, but will also save the hospital the significant expense of starting the diesel generator for emergency power.

The Rotary Doctor Bank has funded the laptops through Medicaudit, the company which had installed the original computer system.  The new laptops are up and running and keeping everything ticking over smoothly during powercuts; when mains power returns, the information saved on the laptops can easily be transferred to the main computer.

The picture shows Dr Rogers Kabuye, of Medicaudit, handing over the laptops to the hospital staff, led by the Administrator, Sister Goretti (centre)

Dr K V Ravishankar from Mysore, India, has recently lead a team of eye surgeons to Tamale in Northern Ghana to carry out eye surgery on young people. Please look at “Eye Surgery in Ghana” to read an account of their visit and to see photopgraphs of some of the patients treated.

Past District Governor Gillian Pearce was recently invited to speak at the World Conference on Clinical Safety in Paris. She spoke about her recent visit to Freda Carr Hospital, Ngora, Uganda, as Leader of a Vocational Training Team from District 1090.

To see Gillian’s Presentation, please click on “Gillian’s Presentation”

Following the successful completion of the project to equip the operating theatre at The Mother of Mercy Hospital, formerly known as Kyengera Womens’ Hospital, we are now supporting another project to provide the hospital with more facilities, including a dental department, which is desperately needed in this deprived part of Kampala.

If anyone wishes to contribute to this project, please contact Mansel Thomas at: Rotary.doctorbank@gmail.com

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Past RIBI President David Morgan.

David, a member of the Rotary Club of Porthcawl, was President of Rotary in Britain and Ireland in 1994. During his travels as President, he saw that there was a Rotary Doctor Bank in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands and David felt that there should be one in RIBI. David asked George Mercer of the Rotary Club of Cardiff to be Chair and so The Rotary Doctor Bank of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. During the 30 years since its formation, The Doctor Bank has gone from strength to strength. We are deeply indebted to David for his foresight and support.

A new generator has been installed at Kyengera Women’s Hospital as part of the project funded by a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation. The generator will come on automatically when the electricity supply fails, as it often does, so that the work of the hospital does not stop during power cuts.

A team of 5 midwives are travelling to Freda Carr Hospital on 11th November to carry out Vocational Training at the hospital. This is the third time that the team have visited the hospital.