Three BT women take the challenge at QECH

The list of executives joining the sleepover challenge in aid of the Nation Publications Limited (NPL) Mother’s Day Fun Run is gowing with more and more women joining the cause.

On Saturday, Options proprietor Rose Biziwick, Rhodah Shaba Phiri from the Department of Obsteristics and Gynaecology at the College of Medicine and Deloitte audit manager Caroline Gausi Nyirenda  spent the night at Gogo Chatinkha Maternity Wing at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre.

In an interview, Nyirenda—who is also a member of the Chatinkha Maternity Care (Chamaca), a grouping that raises funds for the maternity wing—said they decided to join the sleepover challenge to have an experience at the hospital.

She described the experience as amazing.

“We were really touched with the work that our nurses and clinicians are doing in the public hospitals despite being a few, they are in a position to help people. There was no sleeping through out the night. It was so busy such that we were allocated floor beds throughout the night and there was no time to sleep,” said Nyirenda.

The night was indeed a busy one as the trio witnessed 29 deliveries. Nine of these were through Caesarean section.

Nyirenda said she wished Gogo Chatinkha Maternity Wing had its own intensive care unit (ICU) because it depends on the main QECH ICU which has only four beds.

She also expressed concern that Gogo Chatinkha Maternity Wing has one working operating theatre.

“The maternity ward requires maternity beds. The ward requires blood pressure (BP) machines, the ones that are there were not enough. Chatinkha requires a moveable scanning machine for patients that cannot be able to move to the scanning room,” said Nyirenda.

During the night she also noted the need to fumigate the hospital to eliminate rats and mosquitoes. Nyirenda further asked for repair of electrical installations to improve the lighting in the wards.

The trio has so far raised K1.5 million.