Qech stroke unit takes stock, a year later

As the stroke unit at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital clocked one year on May 1 2023, a stroke practitioner Gloria Kachingwe said on Thursday it was time to take stock and look into the future.

According to her, the unit which was established at the referral hospital’s Ward 4A calls for celebration.

“As we celebrate one year of the unit’s existence, it is time for reflection. This is the time to look back at where we were, where we are and where we are going. It is a time to discuss how the unit has helped and what were the challenges and how do we solve them, going forward,” she said.

According to Peter Ndalakwaya, a physiotherapist, at the unit, under-staffing is one of the major challenges they are facing as they try to improe the quality of the patients’ lives.

“Phyisotherapy is very important as it aims at helping the patient regain full maximum potential in activities of daily living and even returning to work after stroke. It starts immediately after stroke. The problem is there are only three of us in the unit so it is quite hard as it leaves us tired to attend to five patients daily.

“Our major strength is that we are doing outreach programmes with the palliative care unit at the hospital for door-to-door awareness,” he said.

Ndalakwaya noticed that shortage of adequate staff has been a setback for the operations of the stroke unit at the hospital, which is the sole government facility to offer such services.

Since May 2022, when the unit opened, it has provided treatment to 85 patients. Out of those, 80 have recovered while five did not survive.