Wellspring Children's Medical Centre

Wellspring News:
Good News for Christmas! Wellspring Centre Open for Business!

Mission

To improve the quality and quantity of life of thousands of children in the schools, orphanage and surrounding villages and to raise the expectations for a healthy future within the community at large.

By providing...

• General Health Care
• Minor Injuries Clinic
• Vaccination Clinics
• Specialist Consultant Clinics
• Health Education
• Community Outreach Centre
• Acute Malaria Care
• AIDS Outreach
• Referral Facilities

Observations

During their work in Kamutuuza, Just Care has observed that many of the diseases and injuries seen amongst the children within the communities and local hospitals are totally preventable! Prevention could be achieved through improved nutrition, accessible and affordable health care, education on health and safety, more accurate and thorough immunization procedures, and provision of a clean water supply and good sanitation. In addition, the eradication of malaria and AIDS should become a national priority. As a consequence, Just Care has built and developed a new health facility on the Kamutuuza children’s site, dedicated to child health care. The aims of this medical centre, named Wellspring, are to improve the quality and quantity of life of thousands of children in the schools, orphanage and surrounding villages and to raise the expectations for a healthy future within the community at large.

The Wellspring Centre

A 300 sq metre building has now been erected comprising 4 clinic rooms, doctor’s office, dressings room, laboratory, pharmacy, waiting areas, medical records, observation ward, acute malaria day case ward, AIDS outreach base. Within the Medical Centre will be provided a child health screening programme, general health care, vaccination programmes, a minor injuries facility, specialist consultant care (with medical professionals attending on a regular basis as part of their “outreach” programme), a day case unit to treat, observe and, when necessary, refer acute malaria sufferers, and pharmaceutical supplies. Any serious injuries or sicknesses will be referred and transferred to the larger local health facilities. However, since this is a community based project the main emphasis of the work will revolve around an outreach programme. This programme will be facilitated by community health workers who will follow up any children having been treated for more serious complaints in the clinics, take drugs and basic supplies into the villages, provide health education and advice on health and hygiene issues relevant to each case, and report back to a supervisor on results and any further problems which they may encounter. The AIDS outreach unit at the Centre will be the base for these activities. Since preventative medicine is so very important health education is seen to be another essential part of the work of Wellspring. As well as the information provided through the community health workers a health education programme is to be developed and taught at both Bexhill and Tower schools. Health education seminars will also be provided for parents.

Staffing and Administration

A local medical committee has been set up comprising of senior health workers and community workers from the Masaka Health District whose present remit is to oversee the final development stages of the Medical Centre. Once Wellspring is open they will continue to advise on administration and development of future medical programmes. The chairman of this committee is Dr Stuart Musisi, the head of the Medical Directorate of the Masaka Health District. It is proposed to initially employ 3 Ugandan nurses, a microscopist, a medical administrator and up to 20 community health workers, together with necessary ancillary staff(cleaners, guards etc) to enable the work of the Centre to begin. Additional staffing will be added as the work progresses and funding allows. Medical volunteers from the UK will also be encouraged

Target Opening Date

Update, December 2007: The Wellspring Centre is Now Open! Read about the opening of Wellspring here.

Funding

To date £60,000 has been raised to enable the completion of the building of the Medical Centre, together with staffing, utilities and equipment costs for the first 6 months of opening. In addition, a large container, with £20,000 worth of medical equipment, ward and clinic furniture and other essential goods was shipped to Kamutuuza last year. All of these funds were donated by private individuals from the UK, Europe, Canada, and the USA. It is estimated that a further £20,000 is required to cover all further costs for a 2 year period. This is required, to ensure stability and provide a degree of sustainability for the work, before the targeted opening date of November 2007. Future funding projects are already being put into place for 2008 and beyond. In addition, the Ugandan Health Department has proposed that after a 2 year period they will consider adopting the Medical Centre as a Grade 4 Ugandan Health Centre. At this stage assistance will be provided by the Ugandan health authorities in staffing and provision of pharmaceuticals.