Gaza Clinic for chronic Diseases : Making tangible changes in the health and the lives of patients

Over the two months period after the set up of the clinic, its team has managed to receive more than 440 patients visits, providing its health services users with good quality services. The good quality of health services provided by the help doctors clinic for chronic diseases was manifested by the relatively lengthy provider- beneficiary contact time, the short waiting time, the respect of the patients privacy, the availability of highly qualified medical team who were recruited on merely professional competitive basis, the availability of diagnostic tests, and most importantly the good positive change in the patients health conditions.


The Help Doctors clinic for Chronic Diseases' nurse doing an EKG

Every patient who visit the clinic is firstly met by a decent medical secretary, who registers his/ her personal demographic data on the front page of the medical file. Then, she forwards the file and accompanies the patient to the clinic nurse who measures his or her vital signs, length and weight, and calculates his or her body mass index. Then, the nurse accompanies the patient to the clinic physician who inquires about the patients history, examines him or her, requests diagnostic tests, and recommends the management plan.

Many people with chronic diseases in Khan Younis, which is heavily stricken by unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty, have chosen the services of the Help Hoctors clinic, on one hand, as a result of the decayed nature of the services provided by the other health providers on free of charge or on the low user fees basis and, on the other hand, as a result of the high cost of the health services provided by private for profit health providers.

Despite the short period of time after its inauguration at the end of April 2009, Help Doctor clinic for chronic diseases has contributed to a significant change in the health conditions of many users of its services. Dr. Walid- the clinic physician- who was trained for seven years as a general physician and then for four years in the field of Internal medicine to be a certified and qualified internist has given us three examples , among others, of the tangible changes in the clinic users health conditions.

The first example is Khayrya – a 60 years old female who was known to be diabetic and hypertension patient since many years – had a blood pressure of 18/90 mm hg and a Post-prandial plasma Glucose of 270 mg/dl on her first visit to the clinic; but 2 months after repeated visits to the clinic, her blood pressure was reduced to 140/84 mm hg and her post prandial plasma Glucose became 190 mg/dl.

An other example is Badrya- an other 69 years old female with Diabetes and hypertension- whose blood pressure was 190/90 mm hg and plasma Glucose was 220 mg/dl at her first visits; her blood pressure was reduced to 130/70 mm hg and her plasma glucose level became 140 mg/dl after repeated consultation at the clinic.

The third example is Joma'a- a 59 years old male diabetic and hypertensive- who visited the clinic at the first day of its operations with high blood pressure and astronomical readings of Plasma Glucose exceeding 400 mg/dl. Joma'a has rejected for several years the advises of physicians to be on Insulin, but after many sessions of consultations and health education he became convinced that he doesn’t have any other alternative other than being compliant to the doctors recommendations. Joma'a's blood pressure and plasma Glucose are now under control as a result of both health education and adherence to the physician recommendations." The Help Doctors clinic for Chronic Diseases' laboratory technician taking a blood sample.