The Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association 36th Annual Congress
on Shona in Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), 07/Nov/2010 22:04, 34 days ago
Sandra, Fred (the Welbodi doctors) and I were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the SLMDA annual congress. We arrived at the stated time (and found out we had to pay for the privilege of being invited to attend….) and sat around waiting for another hour or so before it actually started…. It was an impressive affair. Loudspeakers boomed out Paul Simon music and we were greeted at the door by my lovely medical students. The seats were covered (as if at a wedding) and there were some impressive decorations at the “top table” where the important people sat (no bride and groom, although the chairperson did keep announcing which young female junior doctors were “available” to the young male junior doctors! )It was certainly an "interesting cultural experience", as my friend John (an ophthalmologist) put it. The chairperson invited every Old Boy in the Network to stand up and have their own personal round of applause. To be fair, a) there were a few women and b) these are doctors who had gone abroad to do their training and then actually come back to Sierra Leone to work. I was quite surprised to see how many doctors there actually are in SL– although most of them work either in the Ministry of Health in a managerial/public health capacity or work in private practice.The obligatory drug company sponsorship was ever present– we even got presented with a laptop bag full of leaflets advertising benylin cough mixture, various ACTs (artemisinin combination treatments) and clexane. Also included were a pen and a bottle opener/key ring in one. Sure they’ll come in handy sometime.We had a number of different talks from various speakers including the registrar of the Medical Council– yes, the one I am supposed to register with, if anyone in either VSO or the Ministry would get around to organising it for me…. He reminded everyone present why it is so important to be registered and why it is also important to renew your registration each year. My thoughts exactly. So it turns out that most of the doctors in the country aren’t officially registered. And yes, they’re still practicing….A few more talks later and the Congress was officially opened by the Chief Medical Officer, who was standing in for the Minister for Health. There was a musical entertainment on the programme but unfortunately they didn’t turn up…. At the end all the junior doctors who had qualified since 2007 (which included most of our doctors from ODCH) got to stand up and introduce themselves to the rest of the crowd, and get their own applause. Don’t think that would happen at the BMA annual conference somehow!