FROM A ROVING ITINERANT (TIANGGE) HEALTH
FACILITY TO A COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CLINIC
Del
Mundo F., Revita Cruz L.
Dr. Fe del Mundo Medical Center Foundation,
Quezon City, Philippines
Objective: To assist the community
in the establishment of a well-coordinated and self-sustaining
comprehensive program in community pediatrics.
Methods:
It took twenty years for the full development of a comprehensive
program in community pediatrics to be attained. It started with the use of
roving itinerants serving as clinics by physicians from the Children's
Medical Center Philippines (CMCP) who traveled from one village to another,
carrying medical facilities and teaching materials. The activities were: 1) Organizing an adequately
informed community-based health team; 2) Conducting surveillance and
monitoring programs; 3) Holding regular medical clinics
Results:
Today, the program has a health facility which was built by the village
people. It is called Pinaod Community Comprehensive Health Clinic (PCCHC),
which has the following facilities:4 Doctor's clinic ,X-ray machine,
Laboratory, Pharmacy, Seminar room . PCCHC has the following continuing
projects: (1) Training of Traditional Birth Attendants, volunteer health
workers, midwives and nurses, village political leaders and CMCP
physicians; (2) "Bulilit Health Workers", a child-to-child
program in all elementary schools (3) Under-five clinic (4) A roving
drugstore at the village sub-units level, (6) a School-based Health program
for the adolescents and young adults.
Conclusion: A successful
community-based program in Pediatrics consists of a large variety of
interrelated elements that contribute to health, and includes all
institutions and individuals providing health care, whether governmental,
private or traditional.