Modern dental practice is very reliant on complex, highly engineered equipment. However, it is well recognised that medical equipment procurement, installation, maintenance and repair present challenges in many sub-Saharan African countries. The MalDent Project has already faced these on several fronts. For example, at the beginning of The MalDent Project we recognised that the Dental Department at Kamuzu Central Hospital was in need of urgent re-equipping if it were to be suitable for clinical training of BDS students.
The donation of medical and dental equipment from countries such as the UK to low-resource environments is fraught with difficulty. However, we have been able to resolve many of the recognised challenges by partnering with the charity Dentaid and with Henry Schein Dental, which allowed us to accept generous donations of dental chairs from a variety of donors, including Scottish health boards and other dental facilities across the UK. We were very selective about the type of chair we would accept, to ensure suitability for the Malawian environment, and all of the donated equipment was serviced in Dentaid’s workshop in Southampton. The chairs were then packed into shipping containers for transport to Lilongwe, after which a team from Dentaid and Henry Schein travelled to Malawi on two separate occasions to install the equipment. Through Dentaid, we were also able to establish a 12 unit phantom head facility. These activities are described in a number of previous blog posts.
Support from Henry Schein Dental therefore goes back to the very beginning of The MalDent Project. Time has moved on and we now have two new initiatives that require dental equipment. The first is the new AMECA MalDent dental clinic at Chilomoni Health Centre. Thanks to a grant from the Swiss organisation Fondation Eagle, we now have the funds to complete the equipping. Secondly, construction of the new dental teaching facility on the Blantyre campus of KUHeS is now underway and we need to begin the procurement process for the dental chairs that will be installed in the clinics.
On 19th May, Peter Chimimba and I took a trip to meet with Leigh Spamer, the Managing Director of Henry Schein South Africa’s facility in Johannesburg, and with members of her team to begin discussions about these two new projects. On arrival at the premises, we were delighted to see our names up in lights!
We headed up the stairs, past the Henry Schein banner …
… and into the conference room, where we had a very useful meeting over lunch with Leigh, André Wessels (Dental Equipment Service Technician) and Robin Petersen (Regional Sales Manager).
As indicated above, Henry Schein has a long association with The MalDent Project, so Peter and I started the meeting by updating Leigh, André and Robin on progress to date, including the recent graduation of the first cohort of dental students. In addition to discussing our forthcoming equipment requirements, we also covered issues relating to Standard Operating Procedures and training of Malawian biomedical engineers in dental equipment maintenance and repair, for both of which André kindly agreed to provide support. André has made multiple trips to Malawi, including for installation of the two new compressors we purchased for the phantom head unit at Kamuzu Central Hospital, and he has a number of regular clients in the country.
During the meeting Ruthie Markus, CEO of AMECA, was able to join us briefly via WhatsApp in relation to the AMECA MalDent dental clinic at Chilomoni Health Centre.
After we had finished the meeting, André and Robin took Peter and I on a very interesting guided tour of the Henry Schein South Africa Distribution Centre. It was a vast facility containing a myriad of dental equipment and products, incredibly well organised and operating under a high degree of security.
After our tour, we headed back into the office area and spied a picture of Henry Schein, the founder of the company, with his wife Esther.
We decided this was the perfect backdrop for a group photograph:
In the evening, Peter and I enjoyed dinner with André and Robin, during which the earlier conversations continued. I also took the opportunity to learn more about South Africa from André and Robin. My appetite for the country and interest in its history had been whetted both by my visit to Cape Town last year and by my recent reading of Nelson Mandela’s book Long Walk to Freedom. It was a great evening to round off a very successful visit.
The next morning, Peter and I returned to the O.R. Tambo International Airport for the flight home. From the airside restaurant where we were enjoying a coffee, we saw our plane pull in to the gate on time.
After an uneventful flight we were soon back in Blantyre, reflecting on a very valuable and positive meeting with Leigh, André and Robin. We now look forward to converting the ideas we discussed into action.
Acknowledgement
Grateful thanks are due to Laurise DeKock for her advice and help in setting up our visit.
Sorry I could not go along to what seems like a really productive visit. Looking forward to progressing this Jeremy and moreover to seeing the equipment being installed at Chilomoni. Many thanks for another informative blog and thanks to you and to Peter for sorting.