DOCTOR'S HIV EFFORTS RECOGNISED!

The Zambian hospital will be officially twinned with its Borders counterpart

A Scots doctor who helped to fight Aids in Africa until it claimed his own life is being officially recognised.

A twinning agreement between the Borders General Hospital near Melrose and St Francis Hospital in Zambia will honour the efforts of Dr Sandy Logie.

He took early retirement from the BGH in 1993 to carry out voluntary health work in Africa.

He died in 2001 as a result of being infected with HIV when a needle he was using on a patient struck his finger.

Since Dr Logie's death his widow Dorothy, who is also a doctor and lives near Melrose, has continued his work.

Along with friends she has helped to raise £10,000 resulting in a clinic at St Francis hospital being named after her husband.

She said: "Aids is a symptom of what is happening in Africa and the epidemic is being largely driven by poverty.

"It was poverty-related issues that Sandy and I were interested in looking at in the beginning.

"It was only after he became infected that we focused our attention on Aids."

Dr Logie is due to give an illustrated talk on the work of the Zambian hospital as part of the twinning ceremony.

NHS Borders chairperson Mary Wilson said the agreement was not simply a symbolic gesture but was aimed at promoting co-operation and understanding between the two institutions.

She said: "It recognises the support our staff have given to St Francis Hospital over the years by fundraising and volunteering their time to work in the hospital.

"The twinning event will also raise awareness of the challenges faced by the staff in Zambia and provide an insight into how we can help to support them and develop our links with them in the future."

The Sandy Logie Clinic at St Francis Hospital is now one of the biggest outlets for anti-Ais drugs in Zambia.

The two hospitals share a number of similarities.

They each have a similar number of beds, cover a large rural area and are secondary referral and teaching hospitals.

However, St Francis Hospital with a fraction of the number of staff looks after almost one and a half million people while Borders General Hospital has just 100,000 in its catchment area.

The latest Borders medic to follow in Dr Logie's footsteps by working at the African hospital is Dr Dan Clutterbuck, consultant in genito-urinary medicine for NHS Borders, who has just returned to Scotland.

He said: "Many of the nurses who work in the hospital are directly affected by HIV themselves as are most of the volunteers who provide administrative support and manage the massive patient numbers each day.

"As an indication of the conditions the staff work in, everyone takes drug shortages, power cuts and the lack of water in their stride."
BBC NEWS REPORT.