Creating a newborn ward in Uganda

The babies had no space or facilities

When Unni volunteered to 'improve' the newborn baby ward in Mbarara Hospital in Uganda, he found that there was not one there to improve! Babies simply had to share already full beds with toddlers and older children, and did not get any special care. People were too busy looking after the constant work-load of ill children to have time to rectify this. 

There were not even any cots left, and the baby-bassinets were all being used as storage boxes for notes, etc.

So Unni found some cots ...

Unni found discarded cots in the hospital dump, and set about renovating them, and giving them a lick of paint, and was immediately joined by other enthusiastic doctors and nurses.

... and built two neonatal cubicles

With a small sum of charity money he found a local carpenter who divided the end of one of the children's wards into two large cubicles for newborn babies. The cost was minimal.

One cubicle was kept at 34°C for the sickest of babies to stay in. By keeping the whole room warm, babies could be looked after in bassinets, and there was no need for expensive incubators.

The second cubicle was kept at 30°C for the more stable babies.