VPM medical centre was started in February 2001 to provide curative and preventative health services to Korogocho residents who otherwise have no healthcare provision. This year we have some new staff members in our clinic team, due to an increase in the number of both in-patients and out-patients.
Our centre has a clinic, a small maternity facility, an in-patient ward and a well-equipped laboratory and pharmacy. The Centre is open 24 hours a day. he staff at the medical centre are 9 in number which includes 1 part-time doctor, 1 nurse and 4 nurse aids, a cleaner and two watchmen. Two of the nurse aids are under training here to help better the facility when I am not available since I also work at a government facility. The course runs for one year. Once they are finished, the are absorbed into the facility to help run it.
The clinic serves the entire population of Korogocho. Frequent diseases that the clinic treats are water borne diseases; typhoid, dysentry, diarrhoea, Bilharzia, Sexually transmitted diseases, malaria, meningitis . Most of our patients are HIV positive, and many of these prevalent diseases hit them so hard that many die if they are not treated quickly and appropriately. Monthly VPM clinic records show that in an average month we have:
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about 650 out-patients, both in-patient and out-patients
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Over 200 malaria and pneumonia patients (mostly children)
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over 250 vaccinations of children against BCG, Tuberculosis, Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio
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Around 25 maternity patients.
Donations given towards the expenses of the clinic go a long way! We continue to get our medicine and medical supplies from Mission for Essential Drug and Supplies (MEDS). MEDS is a Christian medical charity non-profit making which was formed in conjunction with the Catholic Secretariat and Christian Health Association of Kenya (CHAK). MEDS sells medicine and medical supplies at a subsidized cost to charitable Christian organisations working among the very poor people in slums and remote areas of Kenya.
