July 4, 2009 – My first day in the Clinic -- PART I

Having problems with posting long blogs so going to split it up. here is the first part:

Sister Bernadette had arranged for a whole day at the hospital today for me. This would be the first time I would finally be able to work in a hospital and I was excited to see what the day would bring. I would be spending the entire day with the clinical officers at the hospital since there are no doctors at the clinic. The clinical officers would be the US equivalent of a physician’s assistant – they have gone through about 3 years of training after secondary school. They are very good at treating the most common diseases and there is much I could learn from them. There are two clinical officers, Mr. Deeper Mshanga and Mr. Stima (never got his first name). Mr. Mshanga has been working as a clinical officer for about 10 years and Mr. Stima for about 5 years.

Additionally, there are brand new buildings for the clinic, courtesy of GAIA – the organization whom helped arrange my trip to various health clinics in Malawi. In fact, they just opened up two of the examination rooms a few days before I arrived. They building are slated to be used for examining patients, bathing room for the sickest of patients, a pharmacy, a lab room, and a cashier’s office. This is a paying clinic rather than a government run clinic and on average they charge about MWK 300 (~$1.80) per patient. The cost includes lab tests and a bed. The difference in service and cost between this hospital and a government hospital is significant – the government hospital there is longer lines, the hospital staff has little time with each patient, the care is poor, but it is free. Meanwhile at the Ludzi health clinic which is staff by government paid workers (clinical officers and nurses) but run by the Catholic mission and charges a fee but is able to provide better service and care.