By Moses Talemwa
WEEKLY OBSERVER
Two British volunteers have turned Nanganda in Makindye
Division into place where the poor can access basic health
care service for almost no fee.
The two Britons, Philip McMinn Mitchell and his wife Clare,
started Hope Clinic in Lukuli where the poor residents and
others access decent health care at a reasonable, fee.
According to Mitchell, Hope Clinic Lukuli Uganda started
in 2000 as a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) to provide
general health services.
A patient pays Shs 1,000 as consultation fee to see a doctor,
while one is required to pay Shs 5,000 for the first antenatal
visit, and Shs 500 for subsequent visits.
Patients pay Shs 2,000 for admission, and the clinic may
carry out normal deliveries at a paltry Shs 30,000! Compare
this to Shs 300,000 for a normal delivery at Lubaga Hospital,
and Shs 450,000 at Mulago Hospital’s elite 6th floor
ward!
It’s free service in the general maternity ward on
the fifth floor at Mulago, but without support services
such as clean accommodation and food, as well as access
to specialist doctors!
Nsambya Hospital on the other hand charges about Shs 250,000
for normal delivery in the general ward. According to Ministry
of Health records for Makindye Division, Hope Clinic delivers
15 babies every month. Twenty women are presently registered
on the antenatal programme, while about 12 babies are receiving
neonatal care right now. The clinic has 10 beds spread through
three wards.
Mitchell explains that they are a philanthropic service,
started by seven volunteers, of whom none has a medical
background. But due to their commitment, the clinic sees
1,000 patients a month.
Mitchell is an accountant, while the rest of the founder
members have been teachers. They were driven by the urge
to provide affordable but decent health care for people
in their neighbourhood.
“You see there are people in Kampala who can’t
afford decent healthcare and have to regularly dash to the
nearby shops to buy a painkiller just to send the pain away.
We are in the business to offer better than that,”
says Mitchell.
He revealed that the clinic has secured some benefactors
who help pay the staff a monthly salary. The low consultation
fees, he says, are meant to maintain the clinic, which now
delivers a 24-hour service to all its patients with staff
working on 12-hour shifts.
The clinic also assists more than 300 people living with
HIV/AIDS and that effort is now complemented by the Joint
Clinical Research Centre, which runs an HIV/AIDS clinic
there every fortnight.
Mitchell says the HIV/AIDS clinic has helped and now people
are on treatment, while those found to be negative are encouraged
to help others take the test to ensure they know their status.
Until recently, the clinic lacked TB testing and treatment
capacity but dfcu Bank management and staff offered Shs
4 million which they used to purchase testing equipment.
The donation puts the clinic’s patients in a better
position to fight opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis.
During a dfcu Bank staff tour of the clinic recently, the
head of the bank’s Human Resources Department, Rachael
Ddumba, said the donation was intended to encourage HIV
testing.
“Our pledge for 2008 is ‘Know Your Status’.
Through this, we’re encouraging all our employees,
their families, customers and general community to take
HIV tests, know their status as the future is in their hands,”
she explained.
“Hope clinic now has a much wider range of tests
to help with initial diagnosis and also monitor complications
in a known patient. We can now offer updated syphilis tests,
better tests for anaemia and a broader analysis of samples,”
Mitchell says.
Previous support from dfcu Bank has included a Shs10 million,
which was used to help with the provision of Septrin for
HIV patients, as well as buying a tent for immunisation
and educational services, and to furnish the maternity and
children’s ward, among others.
But perhaps the story of how Hope Clinic Lukuli keeps up
an affordable service is best told through the life of two
of its founders, 40 year old Mitchell and his wife Clare.
The couple, who grew up in Cheltenham UK, left their home
in 1996 in the search of work in an NGO in Africa. The couple
arrived in Uganda and after settling in decided to help
rebuild the clinic using £20,000 of their own savings
and a further £12,000 raised by Cleeve Vale Rotary
Club, back home.
Mitchell says that “the directors don’t get
paid, there are no administration costs and we don’t
even have an office. The clinic relies on charitable donations.
“
The couple who left Cheltenham in 1996 says they are not
about to return home, as they live fulfilling lives caring
for the sick and poor in Uganda. While they have no intention
of expanding the clinic, they say they are open to showing
other Ugandans the possibility of setting up a similar facility
in their neighbourhoods.
mtalemwa@ugandaobserver.com
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