District 9320 ROtary Medical Equipment eXchange

In 1997 the Rotary Club of Arcadia in East London took note of severe shortages in the medical field in our district. It was decided to investigate the possibility of obtaining badly needed redundant medical equipment in the First World and to see if Rotarians overseas would be able to assist us.

In 1998 the Rotary Foundation awarded a Carl P. Miller Discovery Grant. This enabled the late Past President Dr Henk Kayser to visit 16 Rotary districts in The Netherlands, Canada and the United States to investigate.

Many Rotary contacts and contacts with other charitable organisations, which would be able to help us, were made during two months travel through these countries.

The result of this initiative was the formation of the Rotary Medical Equipment Bank, a combined project of the seven Rotary districts in The Netherlands and the formation of the District 9320 Rotary Medical Equipment Exchange (ROMEX) in South Africa.

Two 40 foot containers with medical goods from World Medical Relief Inc. in Detroit were the first to arrive during 1999. The transport was paid for by Rotarians in District 7070 in Canada, with the assistance of a Matching Grant from the Rotary Foundation.

Since then, many containers (the number is increasing daily and can not be updated all the time so it is better to say "many" as we are now close to 50) have arrived and are still arriving from Rotary in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

A great variety of items which can be used in hospitals or clinics, hospices, old age homes or are needed by charitable organisations caring for the sick and disabled has been received.

ROMEX has finally obtained its own warehouse space were everything is stored till distributed. Rotary clubs throughout our district, who assess local needs, and other institutions can request an inventory of what is currently in stock and apply for assistance. Allocation is often not easy. Sometimes as many as twelve requests for one item are received. The onus is on the clubs to collect the goods in East London and some have to travel long distances, which might be hundreds or even a thousand kilometres.

The needs are great and ROMEX has been able to help where many “hard luck” stories come to our notice:

	An empty operating theatre has been provided with an operating table
	An elderly disabled woman who was carried around in a wheelbarrow was given a wheelchair
	Paraplegics nursed in ordinary beds have been provided with proper hospital beds
	Obstetric departments in two hospitals without a resuscitation unit for newborns received one each
	An orthopaedic operating theatre, which ran out of Betadine scrub, could fall back on a supply received from ROMEX
	A training unit for First Aid without an Ambu Bag received one
	Hospital beds held together with strapping in an orthopaedic ward were replaced with highcare beds
	Respirator tubing patched with tape in an intensive care ward for children was replaced
	A paediatric unit playing eeny meeny mini mo with babies needing an incubator to decide who would get the benefit of one was supplied with five incubators
	A mother carrying her paralysed son to school was provided with a wheelchair when she could not manage anymore because he became too heavy, and so on.

The stories of the needs we try to provide for are endless.

It is a privilege for ROMEX to be part of an international network of caring Rotarians and other charitable organisation overseas to provide help where it is so badly needed.