Lalgadh Leprosy Services Centre is getting an extensive new build.

For a long time, our inpatient wards have been operating at 98% capacity which in practise means that it is difficult to admit new patients. People visiting the Centre with complicated ulcers and other problems have often had to be temporarily housed in rented accomodation in the village below until space in the wards becomes available.

Our limited Maternity services have been operating out of a “cupboard” – a small area of the verandah behind the pharmacy which had been walled in to make a small working area. This was grossly inadequate and needed to be improved.

LLSC is part of the Nepal Government DOTS programme that coordinates and delivers treatment to people with the serious disease TB. An increasing number of patients have resistant TB and we are one of the centres that is obliged to help treat these cases. This requires careful isolation to protect our vulnerable leprosy patients and up until now we have used two small rooms at the end of one ward which have been created by walling in another verandah area. This again is very inadequate.

As a result of some important grants from Build Aid and TLM England and Wales,  and funds raised by Dr Graeme Clugston and his wife Meena, LLSC has been able to build some additional ward space, providing 5 isolation beds, a better maternity suite, and 25 extra inpatient beds. There has also been extra space created to improve the Xray facility and some very simple overnight accommodation for patients who have travelled a long way to reach us. These buildings are near completion and should make life better for patients and staff alike, reducing those times when we are unable to admit patients needing inpatients services. The design of these new buildings has been carried out by Ueli Zurrer, a Swiss architect who was involved in the design of the original buildings in the early 1990s. Ueli and his wife Ruth have spent a considerable time at LLSC over the last 18 months monitoring the building work.