I keep getting notices that there would be medical missions to different areas severely affected by the typhoon. I'm not a big fan of medical missions because they offer the same services the local health team can provide but in a big fancy attractive package. And now, I'm questioning the need to have medical missions for post-flood victims.
What problems do these flood victims have that require a team of doctors to go and provide medical services? I acknowledge that this is a tricky question. An area who experienced flooding during the heavy rains is different from a community who remains submerged days after the storm has passed.
Judging from one paper I found, the top morbidity causes among flood victims reflect the top consults in a local health center that is URTI, skin disease and hypertension. If this is the usual case, do were really need to conduct a medical mission every time a flooding disaster strikes an area? Do we need to deploy teams of doctors? If it were me, I won't. You would just need to establish a clinic with the disaster area, maybe temporarily transfer the center of operations of the local health team to the evacuation center. It could also be as in the case of the paper, a mobile health team that will go around the area to treat patients. The clinic or team would operate for the whole duration of time that the community is acutely recovering and will be removed once the formal health system is again capable of handling the health concerns of the area.
Actually, if the health facility and health team remains capable in managing the health problems, no medical mission should even be conducted.I think what we need are volunteers to conduct rapid assessments; a public health mission so to speak. This will ensure that the community and outsiders know what the community needs and we won't be wasting time and resources on frivolous activities such as medical missions.
Friday, August 23, 2013
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