OVERLEGEN 4-2014 37 dissertation. He said that fear of Ebola was also driving patients away from Sierra Leone’s health care systemoverall. «The mortality in pregnant women and other patients who are not coming in to seek care is most likely far greater than the mortality caused by Ebola,» he said. As a result, the number of patients that the CapaCare trainees were able to help had dropped precipitously. In another CapaCare blog post, trainee Hassan P. Vandy explained how this drop in numbers was playing out in his hospital. «The hospital used to be a busy one since my arrival fromMasanga Hospital. The daily outpatient flow has been ranging between 70 – 100 per day and 8-10 surgeries per week including emergencies,» Vandy wrote on 27 August. «Since two weeks back, the flow has dropped from the above figure to 10-15 outpatients per day and only 3 surgeries in two weeks.» Hard not to help Bolkan said that all these factors had led to CapaCare stopping its clinical rotations for their trainees for the moment. «Given the crisis, we have to find new solutions, more online training,» he said. Kamara, who came to the CapaCare programme after he had essentially taught himself to do Cesarean sections and other life saving surgery, said he felt frustrated that he couldn’t do more to help. «It is very difficult when you see the suffering, you want to help,» he said. On Thursday, 4 September, WHO director general Margaret Chan called the Ebola outbreak «the largest, most complex and most severe we’ve ever seen,» and said it would take 6-9 months to control at a cost of USD 600 million. • A surgical training programme that trains community health officers in Sierra Leone how to do lifesaving emergency surgeries, such as Caesarean sections. Started in 2011, based on a previous charitable group called Friends of Masanga Norway. Headed by NTNU PhD and surgeon Håkon Bolkan and headquartered out of St Olavs Hospital, Trondheim. Nine of the largest hospitals operated by international non- governmental organizations in Sierra Leone with experienced surgeons and obstetricians are partners in the training program. All candidates are initially trained 6 – 9 months at Masanga Hospital, and are later posted to other surgical and obstetrical hospitals on 6 months rotations, before the final exams after two years of training. The training is followed by one year surgical and obstetrical housemanship. The program is conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Foto: Leger Uten Grenser Foto: Leger Uten Grenser
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