Can you help us to prepare for COVID-19?

Why? At Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda we have been preparing as best we can for the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is sweeping across the world. Kiwoko Hospital is a not-for-profit, private hospital based in rural Uganda with a catchment area of approximately 1 million people, many of whom are living close to or below the bread line. Like many other health care facilities in low resource settings, where there is limited government support for private hospitals and no social support system for the population, we depend heavily on donors to enable us to provide care for our patients. Extra expenses incurred at a time like this stretch our already tight budget. Yet we want to be as prepared as possible in order to provide best possible education and care for our staff, patients and community. 

What have we done so far? 

1) We have initiated hand washing and screening at the gate of the hospital, which has included purchasing non-touch thermometers.

2) We have taken the liberty of dubbing World Health Organisation videos on coronavirus, how to protect ourselves against it, handwashing and masks into the local language Luganda and showing them on a few TVs around the hospital, broadcasting them on the hospital radio and using loudspeakers to communicate at the hospital gate. 

3) We have bought some extra PPE (personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks) and are educating staff on the use of it. 

4) We are mobilising a response team to initially assess patients, and then lead the effort if the numbers significantly increase as has been seen in other parts of the world. 

5) We are making plans for how we will provide care for all patients that attend, whether they have COVID-19 or not, which includes organising how our patients with long term health needs e.g. HIV, diabetes, hypertension, can access the medications and care they need.

But...

WE NEED YOUR HELP!! Already we have significantly increased our use of water, soap and alcohol based hand rub. The cost of PPE has hugely increased due to the pandemic and we are very aware that it will become extremely limited if COVID-19 rampages through Uganda as it has done through other communities. In preparation we are getting 2000 cloth masks made locally (approx. 40p each, including labeling) and also increasing the number of washable surgical gowns by getting 160 made locally (approx. £4.75 each). We hope to use these in 'lower risk' areas, preserving the specialist surgical / N95 masks for staff caring for COVID-19 patients. We are investigating as to whether we could also make face shields using local products. We are limited in the care we can provide - we do not have an ICU - but we want to provide what care we can as best we can. Furthermore, we are expecting that the constraints brought to protect Ugandans (closing schools and markets, stopping public transport etc) are also going to have a huge impact, especially on the poor: many patients are now struggling to get to hospital even for routine care as they can not afford private transport, and due to the financial implications, it is likely that many more patients will not be able to afford the price of their care. 

Any donation is gratefully received. 

YOUR DONATION WILL HELP SAVE LIVES. 

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