Good afternoon Dr. Forat,

Hope you are doing well and enjoying your stay at BCH during this orthopedic camp. I must say that I am greatful for your support and encouragement towards the growing physiotherapy department at BCH. I also take this great opportunity to thank you for sparing your time and moneys that you invested in to collect the physiotherapy items that were donated by Marie, shipping them and delivering them to BCH. I am very much humbled for your love and commitment.

Allow me share with you some of the achievements we have had in the physiotherapy department and these include,

Equipping the physiotherapy department to a functional department where most of the equipment is now functional.

Having the department organised for easy accessibility of the different equipment.

Maintaining an interpersonal relationship with the physiotherapists and occupational therapists who have come to visit us at BCH.

We have had an increase in number of patients seen in the physiotherapy department from 34 patients in August 2023 to 65 new cases being seen per months up to date.

Been able to see both patients from OPD and in patients with majority of the cases being orthopedic cases both operative and non operative patients

I must say that we have registered several success stories from physiotherapy among which were a 10year old girl, was diagnosed with Guiran Barre syndrome, had been deconditioned for about 8 months, and with several sessions of physiotherapy, I managed to get her back to walking and returned to school with a smile, another case was a mutwa who had bilateral weakness of the lower limbs with inability to stand or walking, he was done a spinal surgery (decompressive laminectomy) by Dr. Asaph after which he was initiated to exercises and we had him walk again and now is able to do all the activities that earn him a living. I have also been able to see patients with stroke and one of the patients who had had stroke for 6months was discharged walking and also able to perform his activities of daily living independently.

The two other interesting cases were a 17-year-old boy who had injection neuritis at 1year, developed a foot drop and had developed several deformities, a bridle procedure was performed involving several tendon transfers by Dr. Asaph, then initiated physiotherapy and now the boy is able to walk with the foot in plantigrade, and also another years old boy who had an equinus deformity, done Achilles tendon lengthening and then with physiotherapy, he is now able to walk with foot in plantigrade and goes to school freely.

Additionally, I am able to see all cases that benefit from physiotherapy and occupational therapy ranging from orthopedics, neurological, gynecological, respiratory, post operative cases and obstetric physiotherapy. However, I find it challenging in managing some cases where I lack skills in managing some cases and most of the times, I seek guidance from the seniors in the profession on phone who some times help but most of the times respond late. I also usually seek guidance from the physiotherapists that have visited Bwindi before and are sometimes helpful also.

In order to address the above challenge, I have been able to register for online continuous professional development sessions (CPD) in order to widen my reasoning and understanding the different conditions and how best they can be managed.

I am also planning on enrolling for a bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy at ECUREI, possibly next year in march if I happen to secure funding. I am pretty sure that I can have it done as well as see patients in the clinic, since it is an online weekend program that requires me to go to school for a clinical/ hands on session. This will help in having standard physiotherapy services at BCH as we also aim at having super specialised services that also include plastic surgeries.

The other challenge is accessibility to the physiotherapy department especially during the rainy season and also the increased heat in the department that makes it uncomfortable to see patients when it is hot. I have tried engaging the administrators about this and am hoping for a positive feed back.

Thanks, a lot

Kind regards

Dianah Namara

(Physiotherapist BCH)

Report by the physiotherapist in BCH