Mobile medical units visit Tunisia with an eye to improving services here

A team of healthcare professionals working in the governorates of al-Jawf, Sa’ada, Marib and Shabwa, concluded a visit to the Republic of Tunisia last Thursday. The visit was designed to observe and learn from the good reproductive health services in Tunisia and the successful experiences of that country’s mobile medical teams.

Fully half of the twelve-member team, which included seven women, came from al-Jawf governorate where the coverage and level of health services remain low.  This visit lasted from April 21 to 30. It is the second visit of its kind to Tunisia; the first, which took place from March 11 to 18, also consisted of a team of 12 health services providers, from the three governorates of Amran, Marib and Shabwa. However, this it is the seventh visit organized by the Basic Health Services Project, which aims to educate health teams through field experiences in Egypt and Tunisia.

According to a press release by the BHS Project in Yemen funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the visitors would review the theoretical aspects of planning the services provided by mobile medical teams to ensure the quality of their services.    The BHS Project, which operates in Amran, Marib, Sa’adah, al-Jawf, and Shabwa governorates, specializes in maternal and child health services, reproductive health and increasing health awareness to strengthen the positive healthy behaviors.

The project works in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health and Population and provided health services to approximately 23,000 mothers and children during the past year.  The project, which began in Yemen in 2006, aims at offering the social health services such as promoting and providing family planning instruments, and delivering maternal and child health services to communities that need them. The project focuses on social health services because project designers found that society was in need of a better level of these services than are available at the present time, and because healthcare resources in Yemeni society are limited.

Moreover, highly trained and effective healthcare providers, especially women, were also found to be very limited.  Individuals, especially those living in rural areas, face a financial burden when searching for the necessary health services as they are often forced to travel from one governorate to another or travel abroad, as many local health units are not adequately equipped with medical supplies, diagnostic equipment, and even electricity. So this project may be able to support the society with what it needs, to some extent.  The project will last for three years and has a budget of $15,000,000.

It is one of the non-governmental Pathfinder International Organization projects. Pathfinder International specializes in reproductive health and family planning, and operates in many countries around the world. The mobile health teams are working to strengthen the services of the pregnant women’s care, health education, and prenatal and postnatal healthcare. The teams also aim at strengthening services provided after the delivery, including encouraging breastfeeding, the proper health behaviors, reproductive health, and medical interventions to promote the health of newborn babies such as vaccinations and protecting the newborns from childhood diseases.

Apart from their main work, the health team often participates in offering other medical services, such as national vaccination campaigns and health education activities. In the area of health education, the team works to improve and enhance the abilities of health services providers working in the health centers and units and to create a cooperative relationship with the local communities in their areas. The areas visited by the mobile health teams are chosen according to certain criteria. The health unit or center operating in a given area does not have doctors or female healthcare workers.

The latter is important because the majority of those seeking health services are women, and given Yemen’s conservative society, many women are more receptive to seeking medical and health care from other women.  Furthermore, the area should have a hospitable environment supporting the team to conduct its work at the health unit effectively. Distance is another important factor determining in which areas the team will operate; maximum travel time from the main governorate health center to a local health facility should not exceed an hour and a half.

This allows the team sufficient time to do its work at the local health facility and return to the governorate health center on time.  According to the field visit program, the mobile health team visits one population group, health unit or center per day, and works from 8 am to 2 pm, or from 7 am to 1 pm, from Saturday to Wednesday. On Thursday, the team works at its base of operations, which is the governorate center. At this center, the team reviews all the past week’s activities, prepares reports of the things needed for their work, sterilizes all medical equipment and washes and re-supplies the team vehicles for the coming week.

During 2005, approximately 8,566 people benefited from the mobile health team’s services in Marib governorate; another 9,655 benefited in Amran, and 7,283 were served in Shabwa. In 2006, approximately 6,326 people benefited from the team’s services in Marib; in Amran, 10,012 people benefited from these services, along with 6,452 people in Shabwa. The project hopes to add additional mobile health teams in each of the governorates of Amran, Shabwa and Marib, as well as to send such teams to al-Jawf and Sa’ada governorates for the first time.

There is a plan to coordinate with the Kuwait Hospital to support some of the health facilities in al-Jawf governorate by specially training healthcare teams to visit that governorate regularly. Furthermore, the project aims to coordinate with the Ministry of Endowment and Guidance through its offices in the governorates to design educational programs that will increase the people’s awareness of the importance of the services provided by these mobile health teams. In this regard, the media also has an important role to play in educating people about healthcare issues.

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