KCH is currently under the leadership of Dr. Jonathan Ngoma. Dr. Lillian Chunda was head of the medical department from 2014-2024. Dr. Patric Mpesi now leads the department. Dr. Charles Munthali has served as the supervisor liaison for the global health tract residents from UPMC since 2007. The medical ward has an inpatient census of 80-110+ patients. The department also supports the TB and psychiatric wards at Bwaila hospital (about 3 miles away). The medical dept. is a teaching site for the College of medicine (CoM) since October 2012 and that clinical officer specialist training by the CoM will start the academic year 2014-5 at KCH. There are faculty from the CoM based at KCH to provide training to third year medical students. The dept. has a staff of roughly 6 consultants, 7 registrars (resident equivalent to the US who has yet to start specialty training), 14 interns and clinical officer level trainees. There is a 4 bed HDU (high dependency unit) staffed by 1 RN level nurse per shift and on the ward, there are usually 2 enrolled nurses per male or female side (40-50+ patients each side). There are 4 teams (A, B, C and D) on 4th day call rotations covering a short stay triage unit. Admissions range from 6-20+ in a 24 hour period. Each team relies on student nurses, clinical officer (CO) students or medical students for vital signs, blood draws, transport specimen/request/booking function, placing IV/drips and even medication administration. The current nursing staff is not able to fulfill all orders by clinicians. There are one ward clerk for each male/female ward and few patient attendants. Day to day patient care is done by the guardians. Absenteeism contributes to staff shortage. A hemodialysis unit is thriving within the department located on 2B.
ORIENTATION FOR VISITORS
Microscopes and centrifuge donated by Global Links - our effort to create a mini-teaching lab in the dept
Pictures from KCH by Corinne Rhodes
