By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
In celebration of its 60th Anniversary in the country, the West End Clinic has offered a two-day free health care service to all categories of people.
The free medical care commenced on Friday 9th June and ended on Saturday 10th June, 2023 at the hospital’s Edwards Street address in Freetown.
In an interview with Politico at the Hospital, Medical Director of West End Clinic Dr. Olabisi Claudius-Cole noted that the hospital decided to offer the free medical care service in the community as part of its 60th Anniversary of service to humanity which she said will be followed by a thanksgiving service. She said they started the free medical care treatment during the hospital’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.
She went on to state that in the 60 years of the hospital’s existence, they have changed and saved the lives of many and that she wanted people to look at the hospital as one that has compassion, excellent medical care and confidentiality.
She added that the treatment caters for diseases of all age categories, hence the reason they catered for all categories of drugs for the most common diseases like Hypertension, Diabetes, Malaria, Cold, Cough, infection, gastric ulcer, among others. She also said that the hospital has a lab facility where patients undergo necessary lab tests for diseases such as malaria parasite, HIV, blood sugar, pregnancy test and urine.
“We normally run tests before we treat patients, so it extends to this programme,” she said.
Dr. Claudius-Cole noted that they normally do referrals for patients identified contacting HIV and tell them to come back later for their drugs, saying that the Clinic is one of the hospitals that provides care for people living with HIV/AIDS by giving them free drugs. She stated that if they identified surgical cases, they refer them to surgeons in bigger hospitals.
She added that since they started the free health care for this year, they are yet to receive an emergency case that may prompt them for referral, though she said they have received sick babies that have been throwing up or experiencing fever, and had to put them on the couch and give them start-up doses to recover.
She said the gesturewas purposely meant for the celebration of the hospital’s 60th Anniversary, something she said will be replicated in its 65th and 70th Anniversaries.
The Medic explained that it gives her greater satisfaction helping the poor access good and free medical care, saying that they have identified a couple of people who are diabetic and never knew their status which can be fatal for them. She said when diabetic patients are unaware of their status and suddenly their blood sugar goes up, they will just faint and die.
She also mentioned hypertensive patients who do not have knowledge about their status and might as well just walk around and develop a stroke, and have intervened by giving them free two weeks treatment which will give them enough time to have money to buy drugs.
“For people like the HIV Patients who had been sick for so long and have consulted Doctors and gone to Pharmacies without knowing the cause of their sickness, if through our intervention we are able to identify that cause, it means we have saved the lives of those people,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries, Dura B. Kamara appreciated the help, saying the intervention was timely, as some of them could not afford proper medical care including screening.
Ibrahim Mansaray another beneficiary of the free medical care told Politico that it is a good initiative by the hospital management to take care of the sick on a free of charge basis. He urged other well-equipped hospitals to follow the foot-steps of the West End Clinic.
Copyright (2023) Politico (12/06/23)
