Mobile Clinics Part 1

Arrived on a Tuesday and the first clinic was started on Friday.  Wednesday and Thursday was full of introductions, organizing, repacking, travel and getting over jet lag.  Thursday night, half the team (lab assistant, RN, Pastor Daniel, his wife Keddy and I) traveled to a little town called Busembatja.  The guest house had a nice bed, mosquito net and even nice bathroom.....but in true African style had no running water or power.  J Welcome home!

 The next morning the team headed deep in the village.  Destination: Kirerema.  The road in proved not so bad and we arrived there safe and sound.  Another member of the team joined us at church in Kirerema.  A clinician named Dorothy.  A clinician there does the same sort of work as a general practitioner would do here in Canada, however they do not have to have a degree but a certificate. 

 As we pulled up, the amount of people at the church surprised me.  Perhaps only twenty stood around patiently waiting for us.  After much deliberation, we got everyone set up in certain places scattered in a school building and under the tin roof of the church.  As the people arrived, they were directed to the pastor.  The pastor wrote down specific information to register each patient.  The patients would then see one of the clinicians- Ferista.  She would write down their information on a sheet of paper and take blood pressure and temperature.  From there, the patients were requested to see Dorothy to be further assessed.  After being assessed, given a diagnosis and prescription, the patients would travel to the lab station or to my station: the pharmacy.  Packaging drugs took two people as the amount of people continued to grow throughout the day.  Each individual was prescribed no less than 2 medications.  Most were prescribed 3-5.  And the people came.  After about 4 hours, we decided to call it a day after seeing just over one hundred people.  Lunch was at a local family’s home down the road.  Pastor Daniel decided to delegate driving the team over there to me.  It was my first experience driving in the right side of the car and on the left side of the road.  This still confuses my brain!

 Turning away people the first day was difficult, however we gave each person that day a piece of paper.  The paper indicated that they were to be given priority the next day.  By the time we arrived to Kirerema on Saturday, a crowd of people had gathered.  The word had spread.  Free clinic=free drugs.  With half the drugs gone the first day, I had no idea how long this day would be.  We switched things up.  Two people “clerked” meaning they assessed, diagnosed and prescribed.  The pastor continued to register while the lab tech and I tackled both the lab and pharmacy.  Not being able to speak the language was my biggest downfall and required a translator.  English is a language that is spoken and taught in Uganda but most do not have any education.  When things were very busy I tried speaking simple English to a few. However that proved not be the best as my accent was too thick and many times I wondered if the people were just nodding to be polite or if they truly understood. 

 Quickly we ran out of antibiotics, then pain medications.  Vitamins and steroids were left.  During the time I handed out drugs, I quickly realized that people were given prescriptions and antibiotics for common colds.  Also antibiotics were given as prophylaxis.  The mindset of the clinicians and nurse were very different to what I knew back home. 

After two days and about 10 hours of clinic, the drugs were finished and approx. 250+ were seen.