The clinic of Pistere first opened last year when I was here with the well drillers. The other nurse and I helped get the rooms, pharmacy, lab etc. set up and they had their first clinical days while we were there.
This past year the clinic has grown it's client base and has seen many hundreds of patients. It is open 4 days a week for patients and also offers community education classes. Every morning begins with a hymn, the Lords Prayer and someone on the staff saying a prayer. Everyone is given a number and they wait to be registered, wait to have vitals done, wait to see the doctor, wait to have lab work done, wait to see the doctor for results and wait to get prescriptions from the pharmacy. It can be a many hour process as there is only one doctor and one nurse. But, if you have been following the blogs at all you probably have noticed that the Haitian people do alot of waiting for many things so it is not uncommon. All clinics are set up like this and it is accepted. At most clinics, payment is expected upfront even before you see the doctor, but here, patients pay 25 goude after they see the doctor (about .75 cents), if they can not pay, it is free. Prescriptions are the same way, you pay what you can or nothing. The clinic must purchase the medications for the most part, so this is definitely a ministry and not a money making venture!
People in this area are very poor and in general most are malnourished. It is especially difficult to see the children come in so thin, but they are dressed in their Sunday best and scrubbed clean. Parents do the best they can, but it is a real challenge. Dorothy is hoping to be able to start a nutrition program and get food from the world food program, but there are always hoops to jump through. For now, she has hired a teacher who offers classes in "agronome" , (gardening), and has set aside land to use as a sample plot.
The cases that come into the clinic vary from high blood pressure and diabetes (both very common) to Malaria and Typhoid (also very common). There are colds, skin conditions, asthma, eye infections, and many other ailments. I have seen some pretty nasty wounds usually from machete's and a variety of other conditions needing attention! Healthcare in Haiti is pay as you go, so if a case is too much for us to handle, they are referred to the hospital. Unfortunately, many times people don't go because they can't pay the fees. So... the infections get worse, the fever gets higher, the diabetic goes into a coma, the baby gets dehydrated ...and they die. It is sad, but all to often true. This is why prevention and education is an important role that medical clinics must play. It is hard work and very challenging, but also rewarding when you can see someone recover or know that a child will get proper care.
My first project at the clinic is to write a computer program to track the inventory and the monthly reports for the board and to hopefully be able to supply the various nutrition and other agencies with the data necessary for them to begin providing assistance to the clinic. It should help to streamline the current hand written tracking that is going on in the pharmacy too.
The clinic is an important part of the community and will continue to grow and develop over the years. It is a little haven of hope in an area long forgotten and neglected.
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