Sainte Therese clinic for women
The first 2 days of remote clinic have concluded more successfully than we could have dreamed. A short first night's sleep for the team that arrived from Port au Prince exhausted Monday night was rewarded by strong coffee and loading the truck! Our mission is to see women who have complaints of vaginal problems or “female” problems, to try to diagnose what is causing so many women to have complaints and to provide treatment.
It is a new model for CHP delegations. Most prior groups provided primary health care for the community and the clinics were held at St. Paul's Church. Often 15-20 Coloradans came to make the clinics happen and they saw people who showed up each day, triaging for the most sick, but basically first come, first served. The delegations felt a lot of pressure to get everyone in, even though there just wasn't the capacity to do that. We also felt terrible for the people who came and WAITED in the blazing heat or storming rain.
Our clinics are piloting 3 changes. 1) we are only seeing women with women's problems. 2) we have trained key Women Volunteers to identify appropriate patients and to educate the other women volunteers to then educate their communities. They also are distributing APPOINTMENT cards – so that the women come “Tuesday morning” or Wednesday afternoon. We emphasized that we will only see women with cards. The team had also agreed to allow a 5 more patients, if some showed up without cards IF they were appropriate. 3) We held clinic in a community about 20 minute's drive from St. Paul's in order to be more accessible to the patients, hoping to reach women who might not otherwise be able to make the lengthy hike to St. Paul's.
To report briefly, we feel very pleased with this first effort. Each day we saw the allotted patients and a few more. The Women Volunteers made a list of the patients as they arrived, they let me know when the few arrived without cards & the women totally understood that they might not be seen (we saw everyone who came – I think a total of 6 for both days!) The team did pelvic exams with women practitioners (Pam and Mary Beth) and women interpreters (Anita and Nadia). They had a microscope to definitively id the organisms and prescribe the treatments. Kathy gave out the prescriptions (in CREOLE!!) and did a ton of teaching. She evolved into the lab, as she also did urine dip stick tests. I did intake with an interpreter (Jean Pierre) and we also had an interpreter (Patrick) who helped with crowd control and who is bringing us the freshly baked bread this morning.
Wednesday we packed up to return to St. Paul's learning that our driver (from Port au Prince) reported that the timing belt was almost gone on the $%& truck he had rented to bring the team out from PaP...he left on public transport around 1 am to get a part in PaP and come back to fix the car. We are driverless for now...at least we know none of the team will need a c-section! Pray for good health for us all, ok?
This morning we begin clinic at St. Paul's for women from the Raymond area. Fr. Kesner asked us to not have clinic there, as it is extremely remote and the road produced serious “white knuckle” reaction in me. So, 2 days for the Raymond gals and then Saturday we see women from around St. Paul's.
An added “fun” note. One of our patients told me she had moved to Petit Trou from PaP with her family to live with her Mom after the earthquake. She had beautifully manicured toenails – of course, I commented. Short story: she's coming to do pedicures for Anita and me Sunday morning for 150 gds each!! We are excited!
-Beverly
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