EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Spare Parts Appeal for Equipment for Charity Hospitals

Meanwhile ... one of the charity groups has asked me to look out for a used Phaco unit (that is, a phacoemulsification unit for cataract surgery). Naturally the requirement is for a good, complete, unit "ready to go". For something like this, (limited) funds may be available.

A number of successful eye operations have already been been carried out at the hospital concerned, but more equipment and supplies are needed, especially ophthalmic stuff.

There is still half a container to be filled before the next load is sent out (the other half already being taken up by a JCB digger)! And the "plan" is now to fill it with more hospital beds.

So, if anyone is having a clear-out, and has equipment to spare, please get in touch.

Happy Birthday Geoff

Thank you kindly, Mate.

Another year has zoomed by without a great deal having been achieved, I'm afraid. Is it "just me", or does the time really pass more quickly once you pass ... ahem, a "certain age"?

Meanwhile, despite nine years also having slipped by since the world was promised "Health for All", the need hardly seems to have diminished in the slightest. Yet other example (as if one were needed) that it's no good just sitting around waiting for "them" (the Big-Shots, the Governments, the UN et al) to sort things out. In fact, in many parts of the world, those same guys are actually part of the problem!

Just to show that life is not always plain sailing (if it ever was), Our Man in Karachi is today reporting "difficulties" in getting the latest container cleared at Customs.

It seems they are tabling all sorts of rules and regulations that haven't been mentioned before (and there must have been ten or more containers that have all previously safely made it "up the road" to Kashmir).

At first (wise to the ways of the world that I sadly am) I suggested offering them a bung. But it seems that such a "suggestion" has already been tried, but without success.

Oddly enough, the officials there are apparently asking for documentation like Decontamination Certificates, and (yes, believe it or not) Maintenance Records!

Words fail me. We are talking about a container, stuffed to the gunwales with stuff of all kinds (old doors, windows, beds, sofas etc., etc.) ... plus some medical equipment, all en route to a charity hospital in Kashmir. Nothing to do with the government, or indeed "politics" (although it would be somewhat naïve to suggest that politics do not come into these things). A nice C-arm x-ray unit, some ophthalmic laser units, a couple of old anaesthesia machines, and a few other bits and pieces. Not new. But not rubbish either.

All this stuff has either been donated, or purchased at preferential terms (in both cases by - or from - people on this forum ... for which I again offer sincere thanks) with funds donated by well-meaning folk.

So (and I realise this is a bit of a long shot), if anyone tuning in has any influence about what goes on at Karachi Docks, please do the needful with a phone call to the appropriate ear!

Geoff, have you tried talking to anyone at the embassy in London?

Ye jest! Apparently compliance with DB 2006(05) was part of the conditions insisted recently upon by our Great Leader when he was pontificating to Pakistan.

No, such a course would only make matters worse. I believe that it's always best to avoid dealing with "officialdom" as much as possible (whether that be in Pakistan, KSA ... or indeed - especially? - the UK)! As it is (according to the latest bulletin) we're now looking at a two-month delay, for some unspecified reason. I guess our guy must have really upset somebody!

Actually, the real bad news is that patients and surgeons are all waiting for that stuff.

And the thought occurs that we may need to find "alternative ways" of getting the nice Phaco unit out there that was picked up for reasonable money at the Hilditch auctions a couple of weeks ago.

It looks like I need to take a look at the map!

Maybe the guy was upset because it is the end of the Eid holiday, either he worked through the holiday whilst his colleagues had time off, or it is his first day back and he is feeling grumpy

For what it's worth ... this type of stuff is hardly unknown. I may have already mentioned the risks taken by another charity group in crossing borders under cover of darkness to get a container into [somewhere in Africa].

Sometimes one wonders how come compassion seems to be in such short supply ... especially amongst "their" own people, as it were.

Dammit, people are only trying to help, after all. It's not as though we were smuggling drugs or so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction, is it?

Never knew that, Geoff, we share the same birthday. Happy Birthday Mate.

Maybe ... but (as you know) once these things become a "federal case", it's difficult for anyone to back down.

I guess I just need to be thankful that I'm not out there myself, twiddling my thumbs (or worse).

Birthday? 24 September? Libra (of course).