Background
On April 26, 2017, Dr. Babar Qureshi and Mrs. Annette Linn from the Christoffel-Blindenmission (CBM) visited the University Eye Hospital in Homburg/Saar to discuss a possible hospital partnership with the "Mengo Eye Hospital", Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Qureshi and Prof. Seitz have worked together constructively for years on the ICO (International Council of Ophthalmology) Board. Dr. Qureshi stated that he would like to facilitate clinical cooperation between German eye hospitals and CBM partner hospitals. The exchange of people, knowledge, and ideas would help establish the quality of ophthalmology and the establishment of subspecialties in CBM-supported projects. In addition, through the partnerships, CBM partner clinics would gain sustainability of medical improvement and later independence from CBM. In order to get a better picture of a CBM partner clinic, Prof. Seitz and Prof. Käsmann-Kellner visited the eye clinic in Mengo Hospital in October 2017. After the successful stay in Uganda, Prof. Seitz and Prof. Käsmann-Kellner could imagine a joint partnership and therefore invited the responsible persons of the eye clinic in Mengo and CBM to a joint detailed discussion in Homburg/Saar.
Detailed meeting on 09.07. and 10.07.2018 in Homburg/Saar
There was a lot of discussion - heads were on fire, but in the end a mutually beneficial agreement was reached. On July 9, 2018, the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed in the presence of the Chairman of CBM Germany and Spokesman of the Board of CBM International, Dr. Rainer Brockhaus.
A clinical partnership over 5 years from 01.01.2019 to 31.12.2023 was decided. The planned funding for this five-year project amounts to approximately 4 million euros. The details have been cast into a CBM-internal so-called MYP (Multi Year Plan). The primary goal is the 5-storey extension to the eye clinic building in Mengo for new operating and outpatient rooms with adaptation of the hygiene standard, new equipment and instruments as well as new hospital software. Within the 5 years a parallel exchange of doctors and support staff will take place 2x/year. The residents from Homburg/Saar will spend 3 months in Mengo learning cataract surgery, the senior residents from Uganda will come to Homburg/Saar for 1 month to learn a subspecialty (cornea, retina, glaucoma, phaco, pediatric ophthalmology, orthoptics, low vision and neuroophthalmology). These so-called sandwich fellowships include a 1-week visit to Uganda by the head of the UKS subspecialty. In addition, exchange of operating room nurses and orthoptists is planned. Joint research projects are expected to involve particularly rare tropical eye diseases. The first exchange block is scheduled for August 2019 and the second for March 2020. As a practical preparation for our cooperation, the director of the CBM Mengo partner hospital in Uganda, Dr. Rose Nakyanzi Ntate Mutumba, and Dr. Lisbon Aliraki, head of the eye clinic of the Mengo hospital, stayed from Tuesday to Friday for observation at the Saarland University Eye Hospital. They were able to study the QM certified clinic processes (e.g. retina and cornea consultation with diagnostics area, IVOM outpatient clinic (intravitreal surgical drug administration into the vitreous body) as well as in the area of the cornea bank up to the transplantation in the operating room). The aim of the exchange is a win-win-win situation for Uganda, Homburg and CBM.
The 1st exchange in 2019
The ophthalmologist Dr. Ben Dan Bwonya and operating room nurse Mrs. Victoria Nalweyiso had started the long journey in mid-August to train at our University Eye Hospital of Saarland for four weeks. In turn, from mid-September to mid-December, Mr. Kayed Moslemani, senior physician at the UKS Eye Clinic, traveled to Uganda with 10 days of support from our OR nurse Sr. Elisabeth and Ltd. OA Suffo (Dec. 04, 2019-Dec. 14, 2019). Mr. Moslemani was able to perform more than 200 surgeries there.
The doctors from Uganda were particularly impressed by the good organization of the daily processes in the eye clinic. "Our welcome and integration into the hospital management was well planned and we appreciate the hospitality very much. I am achieving my learning goals so far and the various insights are helping me improve my practices at home. My future is promising," reported Dr. Ben Dan Bwonya.
And what does the senior physician from Homburg expect from his stay in Kampala? "As part of the hospital partnership, I am very pleased to be able to participate in the exchange program. I am particularly interested in tropical diseases of the eye and their treatment. Likewise, I would like to get to know the daily clinical routine of my Ugandan colleagues as well as the Ugandan medical care system. My wish is to support these colleagues clinically and also surgically during my three-month stay. The eye department at Mengo Hospital is the largest in Uganda with four senior physicians and four assistant physicians. I see the exchange as a great enrichment, experience and the chance to see the bigger picture," says Kayed Moslemani.
**The planned exchange in 2020 unfortunately had to be suspended due to COVID-19.
Press reports
Biermann Verlag GmbH, Ophthalmologische Nachrichten, August 29, 2018
Saarbrücker Zeitung, September 10, 2019
Die Rheinpfalz, September 12, 2019
Saarbrücker Zeitung, September 12, 2019
Dr. R. Kaden Verlag, Facebook, September 19, 2019
Homburg1, online magazine for Homburg and the region, October 3, 2019
Saarländisches Ärzteblatt, 11/2019