Mobile Clinic & Health Care
In March, 2010 we purchased a specially designed, 3-room mobile medical unit to bring health care to those needing it most. The mobile unit replaces our medical clinic in Cite Soleil and will circulate among dozens of locations, helping thousands of people in areas where access to quality health care is scarce.
HT's staff physician, Dr. Fanfan Blookington, ran daily mobile clinics, circulating among our damaged school campuses -- treating hundreds of sick and injured. During the September 2010 Cholera outbreak, Dr. Fanfan and our health workers treated hundreds of infected people and implemented a cholera prevention program at all our school campuses. In the Gonaives area we built clean water distribution cisterns at 12 rural schools and taught cholera prevention to 2800 students, 113 staff and hundreds of parent & local residents.
Because of increased violence in the area near our clinic in the Boston section of Cite Soleil, we purchased the 3-room mobile clinic to travel directly to where it is needed and return safely to our Headquarters in Port-au-Prince. With help from U.S. medical volunteers, our mobile clinic will circulate among poor areas in the tent cities and slums of Port-au-Prince and the remote, rarely-serviced villages in the Artibonite Valley.
"I was honored to be a part of the planning and the design of this vehicle," said Dr. DellaValle. "The mobile clinic is the cutting edge/state of the art medical clinic for the Republic of Haiti. This sturdy, self-contained unit has everything you need to bring quality health care to the very sick: exam rooms, power, water, x-ray ready, air-conditioning and toilet facilities. There are 3 air-conditioned rooms and plenty of storage for meds and records. It is a very sturdy chassis and can reach remote areas. I know that once we have our team trained and operational we will help thousands of people" - Dr. Jim DellaValle, Hands Together medical adviser
Major Goals & Needs
- Enlist U.S. medical personnel to work with and train our Haitian medical staff;
- Develop monthly schedule for clinic to circulate among specific sites where people have little or no health care services;
- Develop maintenance and operational team.