February News

Well, we are very happy bunnies here at ThembaCare Grabouw because this month we have become proud owners of a brand new car!

We have been in desperate need for some new wheels seeing as our other vehicles are on their last legs and have been spending more time being fixed in the garage than out. It was part funded by the lovely people at the Gerald Wright Foundation (from whom we rent the building that is our In Patient Unit). It is a seven seater so will give us lots of flexibility and allow us to continue to transport our TB patients who are often too weak to walk to the clinic when they first start their medication. It also makes it so much easier for our palliative carers to check up on our outpatients who live in the more remote areas of our community.

We were also treated very well on Valentines Day by the staff of Elgin Free Range Chicken who gave each of us a homemade chocolate heart. Sister Joyce and her team continued to spoiled the patients and staff by grilling boerewors rolls for them at lunch whilst Sister Thandi, Sister Portia and Rozell had their first NACOSA audit.

our mobile counselling and testing unit on tour

This month the mobile counselling and testing unit has been on tour travelling out to farms and around town. It is great to have this facility which makes it easier for members of the community and farm workers to get tested without having to make time to travel into town (this could sometimes take half a day to do if they don’t have easy access to transport). It’s also a good way to spread awareness of ThembaCare and the services we offer.

Finally, we are SO pleased to welcome Dr Niall from the UK. He has arrived to volunteer with us for five weeks and has brought syringe drivers to ensure that both our inpatients and outpatients remain pain free. He will be providing all the necessary administration training whilst he is with us and has also been making himself useful helping to transport outpatient carers and patients. These syringe drivers are groundbreaking for us here at ThembaCare. Until now the only method of pain relief for our patients has been oral. This makes it very difficult when a patient doesn’t have the ability to swallow and we used to have to use music to distract the patients whilst we gave them their meds. Now it will mean that patients who are suffering can have more consistent pain relief. Thank you Niall for making our lives a little easier! – However we do have some challenges in this department. To be able to administer pain relief with the drivers we are reliant upon special vials of morphine which are not always readily available. We have a meeting next week with doctors and pharmacists to try and convey to them the desperate need we have for a reliable supply for this treatment. Please pray that they will be sympathetic to our request.