Outpost

Not all healthcare takes place in Kampala’s many (for fee and for free) clinics and hospitals. Mengo Hospital is the base for one of the many Community Based HealthCare (CBHC) units. Yesterday, the coordinators, Olivia and Margret, asked me along as they headed to the streets and suburbs of the city. The ministry of health is in the middle of a mass immunization campaign; all women of child bearing age are to receive the tetanus vaccine.

The morning was spent visiting two schools near Mengo hospital. Women who worked at these schools were being given the opportunity to receive the vaccine. One of the schools we stopped at was a maze of buildings and broken walls. It looked like the plan had been to have a three story building. The first floor is finished with tile walls, windows and electricity. The second floor has brick walls and a roof, and the third floor only has the hint that walls were suppose to go up.

At noon, the team, headed to one of their outposts in the district of Kawaala. It is only 20 minutes from the city however, as soon as the pavement ends so does the similarities. Lush and green, red mud roads, and cement buildings with tin roofs. The clinic roof presents an interesting problem because when it rains it is so loud you cannot hear what the person next to you is saying.

One of the highlights was meeting Charles, a clinician from Mengo hospital. He lives in the area and met us at the outpost. We have just spent the last 10 minutes bumping down a muddy and rut filled dirt road when we arrive at the clinic. I get out of the landcruiser, an important vehicle for this line of work, and come face to face with Charles, who is wearing a lab coat. The lab coat’s tag reads – Vancouver Island Heath Authority. It was such a flash from home. I am pretty sure my mom wears the same coat when she works at Saanich Peninsula hospital, around the corner from my house! It was brilliant.

The outpost is definitely a full service clinic. Babies were immunized and registered, and mother’s vitamin A and tetanus shots. There was HIV testing and counselling. Olivia ran the basic clinic/pharmacy handing out medications from painkillers for headaches to antibiotics for infections. For five hours the team of four from Mengo, with the help of local traditional birth attendants trained in public health, saw nearly 90 patients.

The community leader met with us for a while, he is a fascinating man, knowing what is best for his community, yet being totally aware of the details of world issues. He told me we would have met last year at the AIDS conference in Toronto, but his invitation was lost in the mail and he didn’t receive it until after the event. (Remind me not to mail anything home.) He has invited me back to the community as often as I’d like – I will take him up on that in the future.