A day in the life of a hospital logistician
Work starts a bit before 8am when the office is unlocked. I then have a discussion with the supply logistician about what priority to give to my various requests. At about 8am, my assistant comes in, so I briefly run through the morning's work, and he departs for the hospital. By then the big storage tent is open, and I go through and pick the items I need. If required, I write up some purchase requests and have those signed. I then try and get myself and the materials to the hospital. I could be travelling light with just some small fittings and can go by bicycle, or I could have to transport drums of fuel, mattresses, big sheets of plywood, any of which need the pick-up. This is a big bottle neck, as the demand for the pick-up is high. I have even on occasion sent my assistant in the pick-up with the first load, and taken another vehicle full of things myself.
Once at the hospital probably the largest consumer of my time is human resources. With up to 80 people under my care, there is hardly a day where someone does not need some of my time.
We generally work until 6pm or later, doing paperwork, discussing requirements for the upcoming jobs over the next few days and other planning activities.
Life here for me is really not bad. There is plenty of work, but the household tasks of cooking and cleaning are taken care of. Aweil has a nice market, and friendly people. The security situation is good and we have a fair amount of freedom. The team is large so there is always someone around to talk to, and now that I have my own tukul, I also have some privacy when I want it. News of the outside world is limited, but I don't find that a problem.
The Médecins Sans Frontières project in Aweil in Southern Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBEG) state is a comprehensive emergency response to a confluence humanitarian crises including access to healthcare for the population, and the ongoing emergencies of nutrition and reproductive health. Based in Aweil, the main town of NBEG with a population of 100,000, our work in the Aweil Civil Hospital is the only referral structure providing secondary health care services for all of the state and one of only three hospitals in all of Southern Sudan and covering a population of 1.7 million inhabitants The access to the hospital from other places in NBEG remains limited. Needless to say, the health needs of the population in South Sudan are significant where indicators such as infant mortality (150 per 1000 live births) and maternal mortality (2054 per 100,000), and crude mortality (22 per 1000) rate as some of the highest in the world.
