Medical Outreach Day.
Funded by the Rotary Club of Havant.
Organised and carried out by the Rotary Club of Jinja
People queuing outside to see a doctor on the day of the Rotary Club Medical Outreach at Budondo Health Clinic.
Queues were outside and inside in every available space.
During
my last visit to Uganda, I went with John Kirkwood to see the projects
and proposals of the Rotary Club of Jinja, Uganda. John is a Past
President and a mine of information and experience, so every contact
with him resulted in the extension of my knowledge of the needs of poor
local people and the ways in which they might be helped.
One of
the projects John described was 'Medical Outreach'. Every year the
Rotary Club of Jinja arranges and runs several days of Medical Outreach
in the rural areas of greater Jinja. This involves much organisation.
Local medical professionals, some of whom are Rotarians, are asked to
attend. These professionals include doctors, GPs and surgeons,
ophthalmologists, dentists and nurses. Rotarians also help with setting
up the venue, patient care and control and equipment maintenance.
The
first thing that happens is the identification of a community that
hasn't had a Medical Outreach visit recently. Rotarians will visit that
community to estimate likely patient numbers so that they can arrange
the appropriate numbers of medical personnel to attend the Outreach
event.
Rural communities need such visits because, in Uganda,
even if you are only 6 miles away from a town you can be very isolated
due to lack of roads, lack of money for transport and inability to walk
far due to age, illness or the effort required to transport a sick
patient who is unable to walk. Most Ugandans are very poor, earning only
$10 a month from selling surplus produce from subsistence farming so
they can't afford doctor's or hospital fees. There is no 'free at the
point of access' medical care in Uganda.
Since becoming friends
with many Ugandans, one of the things I have learned is how precarious
life is for them. In their emails they often apologise for delays in
replying, telling me of a member of the family they have just buried. As
I write one friend has told me of 3 family members who have died during
this week. A Ugandan friend of mine in the UK told me how 5 of his
family have just died. They feel it just as we do. It's one of the
reasons why they have so many children. At least if they have many, they
feel there will be some left in adulthood. However, it isn't just young
children who die. All the deceased just mentioned were adults. Their
stories are common to Uganda and sub Saharan Africa as a whole. They
died from preventable things as malaria, diarrhoea, vomiting, childbirth
and road traffic accidents - mainly as pedestrians being knocked down
as they have to walk everywhere along the mud roads which become skating
rinks when it rains.
The second thing the Rotary Club of Jinja
has to do to set up Medical Outreach is find a suitable venue in the
identified community where the temporary clinic can be set up. The
Medical Outreach was held in the health centre about a one or two mile
walk from Namizi, a dispersed rural village of subsistence small
holdings.
Next, they arrange for local medical practitioners to
attend. Some of these medics are Rotarians. The community receives info
ahead of time so that they know when and where this will happen. The
community also help by spreading this information when they meet people
at the water source, the local trading post or along the paths as they
move about in their daily lives.
Finally, everyone arrives early
at the venue to set up and begin a concentrated day of patient diagnosis
and treatment. Even though they arrive early, the queues of people will
already be building up. It's normal to diagnose and treat up to 1000
people in a single day.
The community chosen is the same one for which Havant People queue inside and outside waiting for hours in
Rotary Club of Havant funded the protected spring called different queues. Having so little experience of medical
Kyomusangavu at Namizi, Budondo. treatment they will be anxious.
A 60 year old grandmother bringing sick orphan grand A volunteer nurse cleans the dental instruments
child. She may be caring for many children of her own
deceased children.
A grandmother consulting Rotarian Dr Dean Ahimbasibwe Mothers and babies wait their turn.
10 year old girl brings her baby sibling One of the Rotarian medical staff dispensing medications
Dr Mudasi sees a family The young caring for the very young - who looks very ill.
MP helps by giving medication out Rtn Kepher checks the charcoal stove used to
boil instruments
The local MP helped at the Medical Outreach all day A patient receives an injection from a nurse 
Eight doctors
of various disciplines, including dentists and ophthalmologists,
participated in the day. There were also 13 non Rotarian medical staff,
including nurses.
31 Rotarians from the Jinja Club were involved
in the organisation, running, chaperoning, counseling, assisting medics,
setting up and maintaining equipment, as stewards and medical
professionals.
During that one day of Medical Outreach, 785
people were seen, diagnosed and treated. It was such an important day in
their lives that they all wore their only best clothes to attend but
most were still shoeless.
Many people had multiple ailments and
were seen by several specialist doctors as well as other professionals,
but they were only counted once regardless of how many medics they saw.
The
most common treatments were for: malaria, bilharzia, toothache (which
resulted in the removal of the tooth), de-worming - including ring worm,
other fungal infections, wounds, wound infections, jiggers, eye
problems -especially in the more elderly patients. Other illnesses were
diagnosed and patients referred on for further treatment where possible.
Funds
supplied by the Rotary Club of Havant - UK, to enable the Rotary Club
of Jinja to arrange this day of Medical Outreach, were
utilised in the purchase of drugs, ointments, disposable medical
equipment (syringes, swabs, bandages, test tubes, microscope slides,
etc) and travel allowances for non Rotarian medical staff – 13 in
number. Funds were also used in mobilisation, e.g. mobile truck with
radio announcements and the making of banner for display at the centre
which served the purpose of giving the local people knowledge of the
venue and date for the Medical Outreach and confidence that the help
they would receive would be free and sound as provided by Rotary Clubs
who cooperated to arrange and fund the medical help.
Everyone at the Rotary Club of Havant, UK would like to thank their fellow Rotarians in
the Rotary Club of Jinja, Uganda, for enabling us to give this medial care to the people of
Namizi, Budondo, who might otherwise not receive any.