I usually make an effort to avoid going into detail about what upsets me about a health facility, but today was over the top.
Once again, we left Dakar to visit a hospital in one of the regions. Since I have yet to release my report, this hospital will have to remain unnamed. We interviewed several doctors, and it was the nurses who told us that patients here have to go to the pharmacies themselves and buy analgesics, and then bring them back to the hospital. At the Emergency Room, we spoke with the head nurse about problems with palliative care, and she began by saying, "in this unit, most of our patients come here alone, because it is an emergency situation and they do not have a family member with them." I was unsure of why she would mention that, since that's the issue for emergency rooms everywhere and doesn't seem like it would impact health care. But here, the problem is that the emergency room stocks NO analgesics--NO painkillers, not even the lowest grade, level I analgesics. Thus, when a patient is pain, they depend on a family member to leave the hospital, go to the pharmacy with a prescription that the nurses or doctors wrote up, buy it, and come back. If you come alone, there is no one to go to the pharmacy for you.
When she told me this, I thought perhaps I had misheard. "WHAT?" I exclaimed. "French is not my first language--let me clarify--did you just say that patients--presumably the ones you receive here are in extreme pain since it's emergencies--will have NO pain support until someone cares enough about them to go to the pharmacy and buy them pain medication?"
She confirmed that was the case.
"Well what do you do when someone has no money?? Or if someone has no relatives?" I asked.
"They suffer," she replied. "Well actually, if the patient really is in a lot of pain, the nurse or doctors might go buy them the medication with their own salaries."
The situation is same in the operatory bloc--there are analgesics to use during surgery, but nothing for post-operatory care--you need to go to a pharmacy to buy the analgesic and bring it back. Sadly, the hospital uses this system because it has no money--it cannot afford to keep analgesics, even level I painkillers, in stock and on hand.
Once again, we left Dakar to visit a hospital in one of the regions. Since I have yet to release my report, this hospital will have to remain unnamed. We interviewed several doctors, and it was the nurses who told us that patients here have to go to the pharmacies themselves and buy analgesics, and then bring them back to the hospital. At the Emergency Room, we spoke with the head nurse about problems with palliative care, and she began by saying, "in this unit, most of our patients come here alone, because it is an emergency situation and they do not have a family member with them." I was unsure of why she would mention that, since that's the issue for emergency rooms everywhere and doesn't seem like it would impact health care. But here, the problem is that the emergency room stocks NO analgesics--NO painkillers, not even the lowest grade, level I analgesics. Thus, when a patient is pain, they depend on a family member to leave the hospital, go to the pharmacy with a prescription that the nurses or doctors wrote up, buy it, and come back. If you come alone, there is no one to go to the pharmacy for you.
When she told me this, I thought perhaps I had misheard. "WHAT?" I exclaimed. "French is not my first language--let me clarify--did you just say that patients--presumably the ones you receive here are in extreme pain since it's emergencies--will have NO pain support until someone cares enough about them to go to the pharmacy and buy them pain medication?"
She confirmed that was the case.
"Well what do you do when someone has no money?? Or if someone has no relatives?" I asked.
"They suffer," she replied. "Well actually, if the patient really is in a lot of pain, the nurse or doctors might go buy them the medication with their own salaries."
The situation is same in the operatory bloc--there are analgesics to use during surgery, but nothing for post-operatory care--you need to go to a pharmacy to buy the analgesic and bring it back. Sadly, the hospital uses this system because it has no money--it cannot afford to keep analgesics, even level I painkillers, in stock and on hand.
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