Mozambique: Mozambique Mobile Clinic Project

Success Story: Laboratory and Pharmacy Services Improve Furquia’s Health Facility Efficiency

December 07, 2015

For the patient it's an added value because the patient does not stay for a long time waiting at the health unit. The patient comes, get seen by the clinician and goes straight to the lab, where there is a dedicated person to provide the service. It is different from when it was only one person. — Alice João Alice

Since the arrival of the Mobile Clinic, a pharmacy and laboratory were introduced, and this has made a large impact on the efficiency of the Furquia health facility. This achievement was made possible through the support of the Mobile Clinic funded by Real Medicine and through FGH’s lab rehabilitation, technical support for the management of lab equipment and pharmacy medication, tests, and other supplies.

According to Alice João Alice, who is responsible for Furquia's health facility, the opening of the pharmacy and laboratory "alleviated the pressure towards other services. Before the opening of the laboratory and the pharmacy, the clinician was the one that had to do everything. He was the pharmacist, the laboratory technician and a physician at the same time, carrying out lab analyses, examining patients and dispensing medications. That ended up being very tight for one person only. With the initiation of these two services there is a significant decongestion of patients’ flow. For the patient, it's an added value because the patient does not stay for a long time waiting at the health unit. The patient comes, gets seen by the clinician and goes straight to the lab, where there is a dedicated person to provide the service. It is different from when it was only one person that had to take care of everything. There is someone from the laboratory that takes care of the analysis, there is someone from the pharmacy that takes care of dispensing medications, and there is the clinician to prescribe and to conduct the consultation.

Jonasse, also a long time patient of the health facility shared, "before we used to take much longer."


Jonasse Florian at the consultation.

Jonasse Florian collecting medication at the pharmacy.

Hortêncio, another regular patient at the health facility, says that "a long time ago there were a lot of problems. When I used to get here I would have to wait until very late because the attending of patients was slow."


Hortencia Sipirano collecting medication at the pharmacy.

The improvement of services quality has also made patients feel more confortable. "FGH has been coming here to provide technical support. (…), and this technical support has been contributing a lot the improvement of our services' quality," says Pharmacy Technician Isac Remigio Matanha. As a result, patients "feel cherished, they already know there is a pharmacy operating, and that there are qualified pharmaceutical personnel operating (it)." In closing, Isac shared, "we are very pleased with FGH. FGH must continue with this support. "


Patient Hortencia being seen by Alice Jo
ão Alice

Background

RMF’s Mobile Clinic in Mozambique is a new model of healthcare provision for our organization, conceptualized to reach remote and rural communities with no prior access to health care. Since its inception in 2008, our Mobile Clinic has been hugely successful and remains the only mobile clinic in all of Mozambique. The clinic, a collaboration between RMF, Vanderbilt University’s Friends in Global Health, and Medical Mission International, is currently deployed in one of the most populous provinces of Mozambique, Zambézia Province, located in the central coastal region with a population of almost 4 million.

Objectives

  • To improve the quality of life and provide access to health services, particularly access to maternal-child healthcare and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and other diseases.
  • To provide access to healthcare in remote areas of Zambézia Province, Mozambique.
  • To reinforce the expansion of HIV care and treatment services initiated by the Zambézia Provincial Health Directorate (DPS), by providing temporary reinforcement in terms of staff, training, and space for peripheral health units initiating implementation of ART until such time as the DPS can organize the infrastructure and resources necessary for these sites to function independently.