Every Wednesday morning, Ms. Justina and I open up the community center from 8 to 11. We set up a mini-clinic for all members of the community. She checks blood-glucose levels, and I do blood pressure. We bring out the scale so that people can weigh themselves, as well. It’s a simple two-woman operation, but it’s one of my favorite projects we have going.
Back in December, when we were wrapping up the Community Fact Sheet (an in-depth census) that we were required to do by the Ministry of Health, I calculated which diseases were most pervasive in the village. The two frontrunners, by far, were diabetes and hypertension. Unfortunately, about 10% of the population suffers from diabetes and another 10% live with high blood pressure.
Even more unfortunately, there is a really serious problem in the village with compliance to doctors’ recommendations. There are certainly ways to manage these non-communicable diseases, but these measures seem to be out of reach for the majority of individuals living in the village. Just to clarify, there is no regular primary care in the village, let alone secondary care. There is a hospital that’s about a 30-minute bus ride away, but the bus returns early in the day, so a trip to the hospital would usually mean a family having to hire a vehicle. There is also a clinic about seven miles away, but there is no bus that runs that direction.
As you can see, it’s the access to healthcare that is the problem, here. This is a concept that was introduced during training as “health equity”. Technically, in Belize, there is health equality. All citizens are entitled to primary and secondary care under the national health plan. Sure, you could call into question the quality of care that patients receive, as is true for any healthcare institution worldwide, but the bottom line is that, legally, Belizeans are all entitled to healthcare. The real question is this: Is there health equity? Are people granted the same access to this free healthcare? Are the the same public service messages reaching every citizen to help them make informed decisions about healthcare? Here, I would argue no.
The village is much further removed from the reach of public health initiatives and programs that one might find in a more populated area. There is a mobile clinic that comes through once per month to see infants and expectant mothers, and this is greatly successful, especially in regards to getting young children vaccinated. Although, word is that this will come to an end next month as the healthcare system in the Northern region gets streamlined. Aside from that, where are adults supposed to go for routine checkups? Honestly, most people write it off, consider it a luxury that they can’t afford.
That’s what the NCD Open House that we host every Wednesday aims to combat. We can explain to people what the dangers are of extremely high or low blood sugar. We can convince someone to go to the hospital when their blood pressure is dangerously high. We have to speak in terms of outcome with the people that come through. We have to discuss what could happen if their condition, be it diabetes or hypertension, goes unmanaged. It’s not always fun because some people honestly do not realize how serious their condition is, but it’s only fair for them to know.
Love always,
Jess
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