Grindstone

Today was a long work day. 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Suzanna and I started at the gym at 6:30 a.m., then headed off to our staff meeting. Then we went over to the QEII hospital to try and meet with the Matron (the head Nurse and one of the most senior people at the hospital). The way things work here...if you want to set up a meeting with someone, you have to go see them to make that meeting. You can't just call and talk to someone or their secretary to get on their schedule. Basically, you have to explain yourself before the person will decide if they want to meet with you or not.

Suzanna and I have to meet with the Matron because we need to administer physician and provider surveys within the hospital, and we basically need her okay before we get started. So this first meeting is just to introduce ourselves, and let her know about the surveys. My organization has been doing lots of work in the hospital over the past year, so they are at least familiar with our intentions, but that doesn't mean anything is going to be easy. In fact, we met with a fill-in secretary, who wrote down on a piece of scrap paper when and why we wanted to meet with the Matron. So I have to call tomorrow to make sure the secretary actually got the message.

Oh, and we lugged 7 100-page reports over to QEII to give out to department heads, but decided it better to give the head Administration their reports first when we meet with them on Friday (well, hopefully on Friday!)

The rest of the day was basically in the office, going over logistics for the March Workshop, updating the student intern guide, and meeting with Senate about the hospital management meetings we need to have our in the districts.

We have dinner tonight with a former Lesotho government big wig. It's just a schmooze-fest, networking, gladhanding type of dinner...no business per se, but an important meeting nonetheless.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll be at the Ministry of Health's Annual Joint Review from 8:30 – 5.