It was an unexpected surprise on Monday morning when Tony Blair turned up at Connaught Hospital. Like many of the patients who arrive at the hospital he swung in through the main gate - unlike your average patient though, his arrival was led by a convoy of police sirens.
Mr Blair is the founder of the African Governance Initiative (AGI), the reason for his visit to Connaught was to see first hand an example of the Free Healthcare
Initiative, which has been a key project for President Koroma's government.
Accompanied by the Minister for Health and several key officials
from the ministry and hospital, he made his way to the paediatric surgical ward
where our partners showed him a brief glimpse of the reality of healthcare in
Freetown.
While Tony passed us I stood in a small group watching from
nearby, intrigued by the scene in front of us. Perhaps he was a little intrigued by
us too, turning around to give us a wave and quick hello.
Tony gives us a wave on his way to the ward
After he emerged from one of the wards Oliver (our Programme
Director) and the Minister for Health chatted casually to Tony and explained
the work of King's Sierra Leone Partnership.
Tony Blair, Dr Briama Kargbo, Oliver and The Minister for Health
The moment seemed like a good
opportunity for the 'snap'! Jo (our Communications Consultant) was
delegated the nerve-wracking task of lining us up for a photo.
Tony Blair and the King's team
It was then my turn to chat with Tony. He asked if I was part of
the Partnership. I briefly explained my role with COMAHS
which covers curriculum development, teacher training, infrastructure support
and developing new healthcare professions training programmes, hoping that what
I was saying made some sort of sense!
There I am with Tony explaining the many challenges of working at Connaught
He then asked 'What is the biggest challenge of your work here?' A question like this would normally require a lengthy response. Conscious of all the important people listening for an answer I kept it brief and talked about the strong desire for better training and healthcare but that the limited human resources available results in staff being torn between their training and clinical roles.
He then asked 'What is the biggest challenge of your work here?' A question like this would normally require a lengthy response. Conscious of all the important people listening for an answer I kept it brief and talked about the strong desire for better training and healthcare but that the limited human resources available results in staff being torn between their training and clinical roles.
The Minister for Health then joined the conversation 'So it's
about capacity building'. I nodded, appreciating the interest that was being
taken in our work.
Our Clinical Lead Ahmed also had his moment with Tony -
explaining what he enjoys about his work at Connaught.
The entourage, that's Ahmed on the end in conversation with Tony.
After greeting a small group of enthusiastic smiling patients he
was off and onto his next meeting followed by a flight to South Africa for
Nelson Mandela's funeral.
I turned back to the office with a smile. You never quite know
what's going to happen next here in Sierra Leone.
