By day four of our trip, the supply of teddy bears and knitted goods are about half gone. I suspect that we will run out before the end of the camp – but that is OK! Thank you again to the generous knitters in Canberra who provided such beautiful and warm gifts for the children who visit the clinic.
The clinic is going very well so far. Since day one we have managed to see another 74 patients taking our total up to 90 patients in 4 days. We’ve seen 45 children under the age of 12, a further 7 children between 12 and 18 years old and 38 adults. I’ve had some return patients from when I was here in 2016 and it is encouraging to see they are looking after their teeth!
Shelly Voigt (left) – has been a wonderful help as our main dental assistant
The team here at the clinic are fantastic, we have three young midwives, a nurse in charge and the lab assistant and they are really keen to work. Our two young health assistants have rolled up their sleeves too. These health assistants, based on their roles in the community, we could consider to be doctors.
Ghandruk is a very remote area and clinic staff will often be confronted by dental issues. Knowing some of the basics is really important to help with managing patients who will come to the clinic. Yesterday I spent about 30 minutes talking with the midwives about the development of teeth. Their roles as health care workers should emphasise the importance of looking after the mother’s and their baby’s teeth.
Before I sign off today, I’d like to tell you about the weather. It’s very cold and when I look up into the sky all I see is snow covered mountains of the Annapurnas. Ghandruk is only at about 1950m and Annapurna Base camp is about 4000m, so we are relatively low, but still nearly 2km in the sky.
The view of the Annapurnas from our homestay