19.02.2020 Hospital visits and Ministry of the Interior

Today I was off to the Ministry of the Interior to take care of VISA matters.  I have a VISA with the option to prolong the stay past 90 days.  After some time of wait, I signed some documents and had my picture taken.  I can come back in 3 weeks to sort out the rest.  Things take time here and multiple steps!  From here we went to our collaborating hospital at Pavillon Sainte Fleur (PSF) where we can transfer patients that need more intensive care if time allows (like the patient with the placenta previa from a few Sundays ago).  Here we met the director on my left and the assistant director on my right.  The other maternity hospital belongs to the university clinic, resources are not always quickly available and payment must be made for each medication, gauze, syringe etc.  This can be stressful for the patients family especially when it is an emergency.  Also a visit to the blood bank that serves these hospitals was made.  All in all it was an interesting day and made me realize what a wonderful place was built here in Ambovo to serve the people in the community with a good standard of quality care.

My guide Tsiferana who works with us at MHM showed me around

Meeting with the directors

Just a nice sign indicating the L&D rooms and the operating room (Blocs)

Salle de accouchement (L&D room, Kreissaal)

Maternity hospital of the university 

(no photos of the interior allowed but I enjoyed the outdoor areas for photos a lot more anyway)

The emergency section of the university hospital.

Wait times can be long and family comes to support. 

And not to forget,

a visit to the blood bank and laboratory:

And after all the information and impressions gathered it was time for a lunch stop at a typical malagasy restaurant with Tsiferana and our driver Marcelin.  The greens are a type of spinach served with pork, the other dish local beans and pork and the third dish are tini tiny fish cooked also with pork.  All dishes served with rice.

It was absolutely delicious!