By Abass Jalloh
The mobile health clinic buses have officially started a seven-day nationwide operation in Sierra Leone enabling people in remote communities to undergo free medical tests and treatments.
On Monday 1st August 2022, the four sophisticated medical buses, which were donated by the Chinese government in March this year, were deployed in the Western Area (rural and urban) and the districts of Bo and Port Loko, to treat people.
After a weeklong deployment in those areas, the mobile clinic medical team will take a one-week break, before resuming work in another part of the country. This particular exercise is to last for six months
The mobile health clinic buses provide services including covid-19 vaccination and general primary healthcare, maternal and child health, screening for high blood pressure, blood sugar, kidney disease, malaria, and laboratory tests of blood glucose levels, urine analysis, biochemistry, and haematology.
Before a patient is treated, they must have registered for the process by filling out a patient's form and then have their blood pressure, temperature, weight, and height records documented.
The medical attendants would now use the details of the form to determine what type of test or treatment they would need, based on the diagnosis.
At York village, Western Area Rural one of the sites of the mobile clinic that has begun, Headman for the village, Julrick Pratt, who also got treated, told journalists that the huge turnout was because when initially the buses were formally commissioned in York, people were preparing themselves for the process.
“People are eager to get the facility. You know in Sierra Leone, people normally go about their businesses, but are sick, so everybody really wants treatment,” he said.
District Medical Officer, Western Area Rural, Sylvia Fasuluku said in a situation wherein a patient might need emergency treatment that the bus facility cannot offer, the patient will be stabilized and referred to the nearest hospital.
She said the clinic will last for three days in York and then be transferred to Tombo village on Thursday 4th August 2022.
She said: “There are services that are available on the bus which the normal area clinics do not have. Here, one will have all the lab tests, but when you go to the clinics it is not all the lab tests that are available.”
The Medical Superintendent for the Mobile Health Clinic, Dr. Yeabu Kargbo stated that all four buses are expected to treat a minimum of two thousand (2,000) patients per day.
She stated that the goal is to be able to go to especially the hard-to-reach areas that lack access to better health facilities in the country.
On keeping the buses running Dr. Kargbo said: “We do have a contract with engineers who were trained by the Chinese who donated the buses, so there will be ongoing maintenance of every piece of equipment here”.
