The Experience with a Surgical Camp in a Rural Hospital in Northern Uganda: A Descriptive Study | Chapter 19 | Issues and Developments in Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 2

 Introduction: Surgical conditions are still overlooked in Sub-Saharan Africa's health-care systems. As a result, district hospitals have a limited surgical output, and many patients are sent to regional referral hospitals. Surgical camps in district hospitals, where volunteer surgical teams conduct a wide range of primarily elective surgical procedures, are frequently required. These surgical camps are pre-planned events that are provided free of charge to patients from low-income and difficult-to-reach regions. The goal of this surgical camp was to provide free specialised surgery in a rural hospital, hence improving surgical access to a poor and vulnerable community in Northern Uganda. The surgical camp also had the goal of teaching basic surgical skills and providing continuing medical education to medical personnel in the region.

Methods: Data from a one-week surgical camp held at St. Joseph's Maracha Hospital in 2011 was used to conduct a descriptive research. Date of procedure, patient gender, clinical diagnosis, operation conducted, and kind of anaesthetic were all acquired from operating log forms. The data was analysed for age, gender, surgical operation type and rate, and anaesthetic type. Specialist general surgeons, medical officers, clinical officers, theatre nurses, and anaesthetists were among the attendees.

105 surgical procedures were done in total over the seven-day course. The patients' average age was 39.54 years. 1:0.38 was the male-to-female ratio. Adult inguinal herniorrhaphy accounted for 68.6% of all surgical operations performed.

Inguinal hernias were the most common surgical illness found during the camp. Surgical camps increase access to surgical care for disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities, and they should become an integral element of rural Africa's health-care delivery system. Surgical camps provide better understanding and fundamental surgical skills, leading in better surgical case management by local medical professionals.

Author(S) Details

Richard Wismayer
Department of Surgery, St. Joseph’s Maracha Hospital, Maracha, West Nile, Uganda and Department of Surgery, Habib Medical School, IUIU University, Kampala, Uganda.

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