A visit to Maputo

Abstract

Twenty past six and it has been dark for an hour already. We have just arrived to see the patients for tomorrow’s theatre list after finishing our TURP workshop at the private clinic. The single audible fluorescent tube in the corridor of the paediatric ICU at Hospital Central de Maputo (HCM) disturbs the otherwise quiet ward. Down the corridor I catch a glimpse of a ventilated head injury child being prepared for transfer. “Transfer to where?” I ask myself. Hopefully to the theatre complex, on the other side of this 1 500 bed Art Deco hospital complex spanning a whole city block in the centre of the capital. We find the ultrasound machine we came looking for and negotiate with a young nurse to take it next door, where there is an empty treatment room. The mother and child train in tow.