Gatamaiyu Clinic
Clinic Initiatives
The BWC Clinic at Gatamaiyu is open five days a week. Currently, there is one full time clinician, one clerk, and one administrative assistant. As the patient load adjusts, we sometimes have a second clinician on Fridays. When support levels increase, we hope to have a full time nurse in addition to the main clinician each day. Patients are asked to contribute a nominal fee for care, but if they are unable to, they still receive treatment.
Diabetes Management
On the first Friday of each month, we have a special Diabetes Management Clinic. Patients come for fasting blood sugar checks, review of their current medications, and special nutritional counseling related to their diabetes by a nutritionist. Additional topics may also be presented. Periodically, an eye doctor will come to check patients in this group for any developing eye problems related to their diabetes, and patients are referred for outside care if needed. Patients pay a slightly higher fee to participate in the DM program (which they themselves voted to pay), as they also receive an entire month’s worth of their diabetes medication before leaving that day. This program has been widely successful at providing much needed health education and preventative care.
High Blood Pressure
Similar to the Diabetes Management Clinic, we also hold special clinic days once a month for those having high blood pressure. Blood pressure checks, additional counseling, a review of medications, and monthly refills are all provided. The BP Clinics have also been very successful at providing patient education and ongoing management.
Prenatal & Well-Baby
Women in the community are finally able to get pre-natal care! Our goal is to increase healthy births, minimize complications, and hopefully reduce infant mortality by providing regular physical examinations and healthy pregnancy education for all women. The concept has taken some time to catch on in the area, as pregnancy has long been a topic that is not discussed, but now women are seeing the benefits of coming for care earlier in their pregnancy.
After the baby is born, mother and child can return for regular well-baby visits. These visits continue to provide education on infant care, monitor the baby’s growth and overall health, and answer any questions that parents may have. Each mother is also given a booklet which serves as a reference book and provides a place to record the baby’s growth and any immunizations that are given. The booklet is brought to each visit and the clinician and mother review it together. While the concept of a “well visit” has also taken some time to catch on, the joy of the mothers as they track the health and growth of their new babies is evident.
Annual Medical Camps
Annual medical camps by teams from the U.S. were the basis of the entire clinic. We continue to offer annual medical camps to raise awareness of the clinic, to give the staff a bit of a break, and to offer additional services that are not always available at the clinic. The medical camps offer all services for free to anyone who comes, and camps typically treat well over 1,200 patients. In addition to medical staff, administrative support staff and handy people are always needed to help run these camps. They typically occur during the early part of the calendar year, as the weather is most conducive at that time. Currently, the medical camps are run at the clinic compound, using tents outside as well as all available space inside the building. These medical camps have been instrumental in bringing in new patients to receive regular, ongoing care, expanding the concept of preventative care and introducing health education. Always a time of excitement in the community, the medical camps are high energy and often serve as turning points for both patients and staff. Click here to read more about the Medical Camps. Click here to read Reports from Previous Trips.
The Ministry of the Clinic:
One Patient's Story
A young unmarried woman came in with stomach problems. Because her symptoms and exam were not corresponding, the nurse did some further checking. She discovered that the patient was pregnant. Upon further investigation, she learned that the patient knew she was pregnant and that the medication she was requesting was unsafe for pregnancy and thereby could cause her to miscarry. This is actually what the patient was seeking.
The nurse spent time counseling the patient, reminding her that God is sovereign, that He loves her, and that He has a purpose for her and her child. While her situation was not ideal, the nurse also presented her with the option of adoption for the baby should she really decide that she could not care for the child. After much discussion, the young woman left empowered to continue her pregnancy and raise her child, secure in the knowledge that God loved her and would help her through.
Future Plans
What's on the horizon for the Gatamaiyu Clinic
In June, 2017, a construction crew redesigned the inside of the building to create space for a laboratory. At that time, we had a lab tech lined up to begin working with us two days each week. Her schedule changed, and she was not able to join us. We are still praying for a lab tech who would be willing to come on a part-time basis, and we will need to purchase the necessary equipment when the tech is ready to begin.
Electricity has been a major problem, as it goes on and off constantly. While we have a generator and an automatic transfer switch, it typically does not work properly, and even the best repair men have not been able to keep the system running. We would love to convert the entire facility to solar power. The technology is available, but is extremely expensive. Please be in prayer about how we can make this change.
Right now we have one full-time clinician at the facility. On some Fridays, and an occasional Monday, we will have another nurse to work with them. Treating 50 patients in a day is really too much for one person, and we would like to hire another nurse to work full time. Pray with us that monthly support will increase so that we can have another nurse to ensure all patients get the care they need.
Because of the unique nature of the clinic, we believe the experience of observing and assisting can be invaluable for students of any healthcare program. Whether during the medical camps or at other times during the year, we would like to see more students have the opportunity to work with the clinical staff and learn from them. Many schools now have a cross-cultural or charity care requirement, and we would like to establish partnerships with schools for their students to meet that requirement at the clinic and possibly even earn credit for it.
Mental Health is a hugely underserved area throughout the country, but the needs even within this rural region are great. We desire to offer more public health education regarding mental health issues and have trained therapists available to provide help for those in need.
While we expect this to still be in the more distant future, the community has been asking for maternity care. We currently provide pre-natal care, post-natal care, and well-baby care, but we are not equipped to deliver the babies. A few have been delivered at the facility, since our clinicians are trained to do so and would not turn any patients away, but this is not the norm. To add a maternity wing would be an extremely large undertaking, involving a stone addition to the existing building and the addition of staff quarters and a kitchen. Please be in prayer about this great need.
The dental program during the medical camps has always been overflowing. To establish a regular dental program would be ideal, even if only a few days each month. Like the maternity wing, adding a dental space onto the existing building would be a large, expensive undertaking, but we believe in time that God will provide for this need.