Readers' letters
Re: UL approval paves way for radical changes in how doctors will be trained HealthSupplement, March 27th
Dear Sir,
I was in (Rhodesia) Zimbabwe in the 1950/60s and was stationed in the "bush" as part of my work as a policeman.
The medical system was run mainly by Government appointed GMOs (Government Medical Officers) and these were stationed in various central points around Zimbabwe, including towns, where they were attached to hospitals.
Those working in fairly large towns were frequently the only surgeon available, and they were called upon to undertake the very varied complicated cases that were presented to them, as Salisbury or Bulawayo were often too far for referral.
The whole point of this email was your article about the training for doctors. One of the GMOs I came across was a Dr Kennedy. He was of Irish descent and was stationed in Ndanga, which is relatively close to Fort Victoria, Mutare.
His district consisted mainly of Africans in tribal villages, with a few European ranches.
His centre of operations was a hospital in Ndanga which lay in an elevated site from the major portion of his district.
He organised the area as follows: the outlying clinics, which were in the charge of a highly trained African nurse/manager (always a male), comprised of individual huts for the patients, laid out around a central large building which acted as an office and examination area.
The whole place was spotless and kept in a pristine condition by its manager.
Each clinic had its own orchard of citrus trees and in season these provided suitable fruit for the patients.
This in itself was not worthy of more than a favourable comment, although no other district was organised in this manner.
It was his method of training his nurse/managers that came to mind when I read your article. He picked the brightest of his male nurses for further training out of his staff in Ndanga, and they had to learn to diagnose and treatmore than 80 complaints, by attending to them themselves, or referring them to the central hospital in Ndanga.
The training was similar to that of medical schools here where rounds etc, were held daily.
Each trainee wrote copiously as each patient in turn was visited by Dr Kennedy and his comments and points of interest stressed for the benefit of students.
Those considered sufficiently reliable were eventually given their own clinic.
Richard Molloy
2 Ballinakill Crescent,
Dunmore Road, Waterford.
[ healthsupplement@irish-times.ie ]
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