write a summary on
floating clinic
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Answer:
NICE, To know we get the same HW...
Explanation:
IF IT IS HELPFUL THEN PLS MARK AS BRAINLIEST... ❤
FLOATING CLINIC
How do you improve healthcare when there is no land for a clinic and your patients live on water? The Makoko lagoon is a large body of water on the outskirts of Lagos, Africa’s fastest growing city. Newcomers have created a densely packed settlement, with wooden huts set on stilts over the brown water, linked by shaky wooden walkways. There are shops, schools and places of worship, but until MSF arrived, sick people had to travel a long way to the nearest healthcare centre on the mainland.
The settlement on the lagoon is where some of the 2,000 daily arrivals from rural Nigeria and neighbouring countries come to live. It is in this overcrowded location that MSF has opened its unique floating clinic. For the international medical staff to establish a project in this environment was an enormous challenge.
They were surrounded by many different cultures and ethnic groups. Most people were immigrants from the neighbouring country of Benin. Every year, more and more arrived and built homes on the lagoon because it was the only place where they could settle. Whenever anybody fell ill or had an accident which needed medical attention, they had to make a long and difficult journey to a doctor. Most victims lived so far out on the lagoon that it could take a long time to reach the nearest health centre on the mainland. At times, there was no suitable boat available to transport the patient over the water. So, instead of expecting the people to go to the clinic, MSF brought the clinic to them.
The MSF team had to start by establishing a close relationship with the local community. The traditional leaders responded by supplying them with workers, and the construction of the clinic helped the medical staff to be accepted by the community. The local crew were experts. They firmly lodged wooden posts seven feet underwater and fixed them with cross beams for a foundation. In a short space of time, the clinic was
established and began to work. With two rooms for consultations, a small pharmacy and an outside platform, it can safely hold 40 patients and eight staff at a time.
Now, early every morning, a crowd gathers on the platform. There are mothers with children, pregnant women, old men and teenagers. Most can be treated on the spot, but for serious cases, members of staff have set up an emergency service to take patients to larger clinics on land. For this they simply use a small boat with an engine, which they call the water ambulance.
Maternal healthcare has been a particular focus for the clinic. Staff at the clinic proudly say that they are able to nurse sick expectant mothers back to full health so that they can give birth to their babies quite safely. Moreover, having a baby is less risky when the water ambulance is available if complications arise.
The head nurse acknowledges that at first she was amazed that anybody could actually be living on the lagoon. Now, as she looks at the watery surroundings, she says how glad she is herself to be living as part of this community.