Meeting minutes from April 12, 2021 6:40 PM

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A meeting of the Faile Foundation Board was held on Monday, April 12, 2021, at Lee Jennings’s office.  The meeting was called to order at 6:40 PM by Paul Shumpert and opened with prayer by Cindy Shumpert. Present were Dewey and Bobbie Dunn, George Faile, David Kearns, Paul and Cindy Shumpert, and Martha Cates. Teresa and Michael Fowler attended as guests.

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The board was reminded that we are not currently supporting any long-term physicians. Dr. Furtak finished her service last October. She is doing a short-term trip to BMC this month which we are supporting. Also discussed was the appreciation bonus given to personnel who worked during the nationwide health workers strike last summer. This was a potentially dangerous event for patients at BMC and we give thanks to those workers whose service kept BMC functioning.

There will be ongoing discussion between Mr. Ackom, Mr. Addai, and Dr. Isabella regarding how to best recruit and retain long term Ghanaian doctors.

 

Dr. Teresa Fowler presented information about Hepatitis B & C which is a common health problem in Northern Ghana. In the BMC area it is estimated that 8% of the general population has Hepatitis B and 3% have Hepatitis C. Long term effects include cirrhosis and liver cancer, both common causes of illness and death at BMC. Fortunately, there have been new antiviral medications that control or even cure chronic Hepatitis. Dr. Fowler is exploring cost effective means of testing for and treating these patients. The George Faile Foundation may be a funding resource for this program, especially if a clinician at BMC can administer the program.

Covid has stopped medical volunteers from being able to travel and serve at BMC for the past year. As a result, the guest house is losing money. Volunteers are beginning to return, and we are hopeful that the guest house will return to a break even status. We will monitor the finances of the guest house and revisit this issue later this year.

One of our major expenses last year was repair of both diesel generators. Fortunately, these have both returned to operational status and are performing well.

After general discussion about the effects of Covid in Ghana and worldwide the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 PM

 

Submitted by Martha Cates