Orientation

I woke up this morning to the sound of ducks quacking. Turns out that they live over the road from my B&B. What a great way to wake up. Kay managed to find me some unworn long sleeved t-shirts and a pair of knickers in her cupboards so I turned up at the hospital clean this morning, if somewhat unusually attired in my jeans and hiking boots, although anyone that knows me well will realise that I would gladly dress that way every day if I were allowed.

When I turned up at the hospital this morning I found not only the two visiting consultants I’d met yesterday but also a Canadian GP resident who has come here for 7 weeks, which is organised as a part of her training program in Ontario. Its nice to have another person that’s finding their way around here, and also to hear about the differences between the way that training is structured in Canada compared to the UK. As well as the two Canadian residents here at the moment there is also a GP fellow from Scotland.

We had a tour of the hospital and met the staff across all the departments, including the kitchens and laundry, which are not a part of the hospital that we normally see. After completing all the necessary paperwork we had a tour of the pharmacy and laboratories. Interestingly, I found out that all the blood that they use is provided by the blood transfusion service in the UK, although they do have a pool of emergency donors here that can be called upon if needed. The main set of microbiology, haematology and biochemistry tests that we use can all be performed at the lab here, but any additional tests that need to be done are sent back to the UK.

Along the way I met up with one of the dentists who kindly lent me a charger for my camera batteries, so that is one problem solved, and having been registered as a patient on the computer system, I have also had my missing medications issued by the pharmacy, at no cost, thanks to the reciprocal arrangement with the UK.

We had a full table at dinner today with two researchers from the UK and a school teacher from Switzerland, all of whom have visited here a number of times before. Good conversation, which was interrupted a number of times by Kitty in manic kitten mode, who kept attacking my ankles, and also an opportunity to hear about their various experiences here and see their photographs. A particular highlight was seeing some of the filming and photography by drone.

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