Help a Changemaker start up a Community Clinic

Help a Changemaker start up a Community Clinic
We did it
On 10th July 2023 we successfully raised £1,200 with 9 supporters in 14 days

Setting up a fundraiser to aid in startup up of a Community Medical clinic whose aim is to provide Quality,Accessible& Affordable Healthcare

Project by Chrysalis Youth Empowerment Network


Started on 26th June 2023 Kitgum, Uganda
  • Am Peter Akena. 25 years old, A Butterfly alumnus, pioneer Butterfly North and a medic by profession (Clinical Officer). My path crossed with the Butterfly project 13 years ago during their outreach to rural disadvantaged communities in Northern Uganda in their search for young, gifted and talented Ugandan youths and my life has never remained the same, I attained my Undergraduate degree in clinical medicine and community health (equivalent to Doctor) from Kampala International University which is a year ago through by help of the project during my academic endeavors, a privilege many of the kids I grew up with from my Village couldn't get. Butterfly project helped shaped my perspective of how I perceive the world through their training over years with their multidimensional curriculum on things pertaining the world.
    When growing, I saw how health was a challenge to most of the people especially in the community where I came from. It influenced me to be part of the change. That was the reason why I opted to do a medical course.
    My dream was set up a community Medical clinic which in time will transform to a hospital with major units. we launched our clinic a few days ago and partially running though we are short in terms of equipment.  

I also want to put in place a community based organization or NGO in a long run that will focus on Public Health and Preventive medicine. Health is a basic need and number 3 on the sustainable development goals adopted by all UN countries with Uganda being a member.

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Uganda’s burden of disease is dominated by communicable diseases, which account for over 50% of morbidity and mortality. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB, and respiratory, diarrhoeal, epidemic-prone and vaccine-preventable diseases are the leading causes of illness and death. There is also a growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including mental health disorders. Maternal and perinatal conditions also contribute to the high mortality. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) remain a big problem in the country affecting mainly rural poor communities. (Global Health Observatory 2017)

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. (World Health Organization)

Good Health and Wellbeing: Number Three (3) of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) adopted by 193 countries who subscribed to the United Nations (UN) with Uganda being one of them

Better, more accessible Health increases life-expectancy. People have time and energy to improve the quality of their lives when they are healthy by becoming more productive

we yarn to see a world where Quality Healthcare is accessible and affordable to everyone.

Our main mission is to provide Quality and Affordable Healthcare to our community.

As a changemaker, I have seen that Healthcare has become expensive generally even when people are struggling financially yet Health is a basic need and doesn't discriminate whether you are rich, middle class or poor, the government hospitals are there but incapacitated to fully handle the needs of the exponentially growing young population of Uganda.

So our aim is provide quality service at an affordable price. this is a social enterprise and our subsidized fees will be for purpose of sustainability for support staffs and clinic expenditures. to ensure this we need medical equipment.

Some of the equipment include refrigerators for storage, nebulizer, oxygen concentrator, procedure bed, surgical instruments,

hematology analyzer(used to run blood samples, to asses different parameters of the blood like white blood cell, Red blood cells, Lymphocytes, hemoglobin levels, platelets, red cell distribution among others-This is essential because it aid in confirming or ruling out of bacterial infection diagnosis, which is one of the major causes of febrile illness in children and adults this side beside malaria. The hemoglobin parameter helps in assessing anemia which is one of the complications of malaria common this side and is major cause of morbidity for most malaria patients especially children. among which to mention but few since its important is much 

 chemical analyzer (used to calculate the concentration of certain substances within samples of serum, plasma, urine and/or other body fluids which aid in diagnoses of most conditions affecting the kidneys and Liver)

Ultrasound scan.(which uses high-frequency sound waves to make image of a person's internal body structures. this help diagnoses of most gynecological conditions in general population

Our need for these equipment are justifiable and would create a clear cut difference between services provided in neighboring clinics and facilities (mostly empirical treatment) compared to us 

Medical equipment (machines) aid a lot in my work as a clinician as it rules out or confirms my diagnoses which will intern help me prescribe the right treatment for my patients, that way it enables us give quality services to our clients.

My area of training Clinical medicine is a field of medicine that deals primarily with the practice and study of medicine based on the direct examination of the patient. This is in contrast to other science fields that focus more on the theoretical and basics of medical science. In clinical medicine, medical practitioners assess patients in order to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. Normally focusing on the 4 major cores of medicine (medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, Pediatricsand Childhealth and minor surgery). Am registered by our medical regulatory authority. 

Since medicine is one of the specialties that requires teamwork, I can't run the clinic alone. I have team of other professionals we combine efforts to handle our patients conditions better,  a male nurse, a lab technician and a senior clinician which is our superior and supervisor and foresees all the activities of the clinic. I have colleagues who are Doctors and specialists who help us with consultations beyond our expertise 

For conditions beyond our area of expertise, we refer to general hospitals who have capacity and man power with knowledge to handle them.

  • That way it will enable us provide Quality service to our clients. By doing this, we would be creating the change we long to see.

We are raising money to aid us in purchase of some of the medical equipment and complete setup of the medical clinic. Among which include an autoclave for sterilization, nebulizer machine (for emergencies), a refrigerator for storage of vaccines and storing of reagents for medical tests, reagents for some of the laboratory tests, surgical instruments to mention but a few and hopefully an hematology analyzer (complete blood count machine) which is a key instrument for most of the diagnoses pertaining blood.

Some of these equipment are expensive, we will be fundraising for them in due course but we are open to suggestions for ways that would enable us attain them.

Below is current setup of the clinic. (In photos)

Our current Poster with details of services we are offering for now

1.General medicine (Include four core of medicine, that is Internal medicine, Surgery, Gynecology, and Pediatrics and Child Health) we handle consultations which is free , subsidized fee on Lab services and treatment

2.Laboratory Services: Our Lab services include Malaria Test (Microscopy and rapid diagnostic test), Typhoid widal test,Brucella Agglutination Test, Urinalysis, Stool analysis, Pregnancy test, H.pylori test for peptic ulcer disease, HIV testing, HeBsAg for Hepatitis B, sperm count, Blood grouping, Random blood sugar, Sickling Test for sickle cell disease and swab (HVS, wound, ear, eye etc)

With your support we hope to include, complete blood count, Renal and Liver function tests, and sonography.

3.Home Nursing Care; for those on palliative care, and terminally ill patients bed ridden at home

4.Minor Operations; simple procedures like stitching cuts and lacerations (injuries), Manual Vacuum Aspiration for management of spontaneous abortion, Dilation and curettage, lipectomy, etc

5. Guidance and counselling; on chronic conditions that affect the pyscho-social domain of an individual, we have fully qualified team of medical professionals  to handle this.

6.Health Education; we endeavor to always explain patient's conditions to them, the test and treatment they are getting. also planing to set up a Community-Based Organization targeting Community health education and selected service out-reaches. in public places places like markets, schools, etc

7.Selected Specialist Services; when fully established we going to have specific days where we have specialists here to attend to special services for conditions beyond our area of expertise. e.g ophthalmology, orthopedics and traumatology, dental services to mention but a few.

Admission; our admission capacity at the moment is at 2 beds but we will expand with time.

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This is our Pharmacy (Drug shelves); we stocked it with mostly over the counter drugs like common antibiotics (Amoxicillin, Pen V, Azithromycin, Erythromycin etc), pain killers, antifungals, antihypertensives, and many more. they are available at very affordable prices which are charged after prescription1687812924_20230626_235143.jpg

Our Common and waiting area; with conducive environment to ease comfort.

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Our Laboratory Section; On the left forefront is the our microscope which is the main sophiscated equipment currently at our laboratory, it enables to do a range of test like Malaria microscopy, urinalysis, stool analysis, film comment, semen analysis, sickling test, Swabs, etc

we also have Rapid diagnostic kits which are not in display but aid us in diagnosing Typhoid, pregnancy, Malaria,Hepatitis B and C, Peptic Ulcer Disease to mention but a few.

On the right lower background, our yellow and red bins for isolating medical waste in their respective grades.

and a cupboard for storage

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Our Clinical Room; equipped with an examination bed for examining patients when clerking, a clerking table, chair, safety box, and on the table Digital Sphygmomanometer for taking Blood pressor, Measuring tape for taking height, digital Thermometer for temperature, Pulse oximeter for Sp02 (Saturation of peripheral oxygen) and Pulse rate, Glucometer for measuring Blood glucose level and diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus. Sanitizers, Litmann grade 2 Stethoscope to mention but a few 1687813122_20230626_235109.jpg

Our examination bed in our clinical room; for examination of patients, stabilizing regurgitating of patients ho are weak and in emergencies.(below)

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Our ward partition with 2 bed capacity under development.          

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Our Laboratory services which are ones of the most affordable around here. in line with our vision of providing Quality and affordable services

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We are offering Free Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension check-up with free counselling for full month. Diabetes and Hypertension cases are on the rise with transition of epidemiological pyramid from communicable diseases to Non-communicable due to increase in sedentary life styles, decrease physical activities, poor diet among others; worse case scenario is people find out they have these conditions when they are already complicated which makes it reversal and management a hard task. 

There are so much we want to do as far as Healthcare is concerned, but the above is just a bench mark for a start up.

Any support towards this course would be highly appreciated!

reach us on;

[email protected] for further inquiries

Activity


Heulwen Dickinson
22nd July 2023 at 10:25am

Wishing you all the very best with this wonderful project, Peter.

A
Anonymous
22nd July 2023 at 10:23am

pledged £200

Christopher Cooper
21st July 2023 at 9:00am

Good luck with your dream Peter

Christopher Cooper
21st July 2023 at 8:59am

pledged £205

A
Anonymous
13th July 2023 at 11:53am

pledged £60

Juliet Roberts
9th July 2023 at 1:19pm

Wishing you every success Dr. Peter. :)

Juliet Roberts
9th July 2023 at 1:18pm

pledged £50

Juliet Roberts has also backed 5 other projects

A
Anonymous
7th July 2023 at 8:18pm

pledged £40

Chris Payne
2nd July 2023 at 9:31pm

pledged £25 + an est. £6.25 in Gift Aid

Chris Payne has also backed 3 other projects

A
Anonymous
30th June 2023 at 8:07pm

pledged £500 + an est. £125.00 in Gift Aid

Susie Hodgin
29th June 2023 at 5:57pm

I hope you are successful in raising your target for such an amazing project. Bi wish you the very best of luck 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

A
Anonymous
29th June 2023 at 5:55pm

pledged £50 + an est. £12.50 in Gift Aid

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