Last year I joined Vancouver-based GO-MED for a two week surgical mission to the Philippine mountain city Baguio; this year's trip was planned for the provincial hospital in Dagupan, a 4-5 hr drive up the coast from Manila.
About a week before leaving I received a call from the mission coodinator asking if I could obtain some more sterile gowns. My hospital uses standard sterile packs (containing instruments, a gown, and drapes) for vaginal deliveries that are opened as delivery nears. If a cesarean happens instead, the disposable drapes and gowns can't be reused, the hospital figuring that it is cheaper to buy new than re-sterilize. But my own clinic will take discarded but otherwise clean and unused supplies and re-sterilize them for me. I come up with ten more gowns.
When I finish packing, I have two 50 pound bags with these supplies, plus surgical instruments, medications, scrubs, and non-sterile supplies.
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