Military Cross Award for Naval Medical Assistant Kate Nesbitt

RETIREMENTS
Annie Waymouth
In November, Anne Waymouth is retiring from the NHS after 35 years of service.
To put that into perspective, in 1974 Harold Wilson was elected Prime Minister,
Glam Rock ruled the airwaves, the average cost of petrol was 49p A GALLON!
and the detective series Life on Mars was regarded as a cutting edge documentary
series.
In the NHS itself consultants were very vocal in expressing their disquiet about
recent changes to the service, a major reorganisation was just about to take
place and there was controversy about private practice. But throughout the many
changes of the NHS in the last 35 years, one thing has been a constant - the
continued professionalism and diligence of Anne. While all around her has been
changing, Anne has proved a loyal and versatile colleague whose vast well of
experience has been drawn from by everyone around her.
From November she will take her enthusiasm and energy and channel it into the
next stage of her life. We wish her every success in her plans and know that, as
an organisation, we will be worse off for not having her around. Now let’s just hope
that once Anne has gone we can sit back and enjoy less turbulent 35 years.
Orthopaedic Mission to Kenya
An orthopaedic team with
members from Derriford
Hospital is embarking on
the second ever Kenya
Orthopaedic Project from the
19th to the 28th of November
2009.
The first project was in January
this year and was deemed to
be a complete success by all
involved. The team, roughly
half of whom work at Derriford,
consists of three surgeons, three
anaesthetists, five nurses, a
specialist physiotherapist and a
radiologist. They will be based at Mombasa General Hospital on
Kenya’s south east coast for the duration of the trip. There they
will spend their time seeing and operating on patients as well
as performing teaching sessions for local medical staff covering
various subjects including advanced trauma life support, pain
management and theatre safety.
Lucy Obolensky, Orthopaedic Registrar at Derriford and
organiser of the trip said: “The vast majority of these patients
normally would never get to see a doctor. It means so much to
them for us to offer them a free session with a specialist. Even
just getting a diagnosis has a huge impact. We’re hoping to
operate on the patients that we can make the biggest difference
to in terms of remaining pain free after the procedure and being
able to return to function with as little follow up treatment as
possible.”
There is exceptional demand at Mombasa General Hospital
for orthopaedic surgery that will help to save patients from
permanent disability. The population of Mombasa’s dependence
on hard physical labour to make a living - often performed
without safety equipment - means that the hospital sees high
numbers of patients with severe Osteoarthritis. Without access
to the kind of treatment that is available in the UK, the mobility
and function of Osteoarthritis patients seen at Mombasa
General Hospital quickly deteriorates, leaving patients immobile
and in severe pain.
The team will self-fund the cost of their flights, accommodation
and most of their equipment, and has also taken the time for the
trip out of their annual leave so it won’t affect their NHS work
time. All of the money donated by the sponsors of the project
will go directly towards operative equipment and the cost of
patient care. A 40 square foot container has been donated by
a local Plymouth company and shipped to Kenya filled with
equipment for the trip. This includes two Image Intensifiers
which allow medical staff to take X-Rays in theatre, something
that is of vital importance when carrying out a number of
Orthopaedic
procedures. There
is currently only
one other publicly
accessible Image
Intensifier in the
whole of Kenya
which is located in
Nairobi, 330 miles
away. The team’s
radiologist will train
the local members
of staff to use the Image Intensifiers which will be left behind
and vastly increase the different types of procedure that it will
possible to perform at Mombasa General Hospital.
The local medical team and patients in Mombasa won’t be
the only ones to benefit from the visit, however. According to
Lucy Obolensky: “The team will be bringing a wealth of new
experience back to Derriford. We’ll be seeing a lot of cases that
would be quite rare in the UK so it’ll give us a chance to polish
our skills in those areas. We’ll also have the opportunity to
improve our team working and leadership skills through working
with members of staff who come from a very different culture.
Everyone is going to get so much out of it.”
18 Autumn 2009 Cascade