A medical outreach team is a team of four trained healthcare staff headed by a clinical officer and comprised of a nurse, a midwife and a vaccinator. Equipped with motorbikes, medicines, vaccines and basic diagnostic tools, the teams enter communities to provide primary healthcare curative and prevention services to remote populations.
In South Sudan, access to quality healthcare can be challenging and is a life threatening risk to people who live there. Because of the scarcity of human and financial resources the healthcare system has, much of the resources are primarily donor funded. This adds to an already fragile situation, and further complicates the ability to provide quality healthcare.
Even with care being provided in healthcare facilities, there are communities that are not able to access care due to distance and remoteness.
To help improve accessibility to quality healthcare, the South Sudan Red Cross is working with the Canadian Red Cross in implementing the "Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival" Project in Gogrial State, funded by the Government of Canada. This five-year project seeks to improve the use of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services and preventative practices at the community level, as well as the implementation of new RMNCAH approaches by both the South Sudan Red Cross and the local government.
This project has six components: health promotion, medical outreach, water sanitation and health, construction of epidemic control, contingency planning and response, and Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM).
As one part of this project, two mobile medical outreach teams have been deployed to hard-to-reach areas, where they will provide basic healthcare services to the community.
Two teams of four have been operating in Alek South and Akon North payams, covering areas that are furthest from health facilities. It would require half a day's walk from these communities to reach healthcare facilities. "We are please you come. The health facility is so far, but now we are getting services," said Alex, Payam Administrator, Malual Bol.
Eight treatment points have been identified and set up around the communities. Spending two to three days per week in each location, the medical outreach teams attended to an average of 150 people per day due to the high demand for care in these areas. This is a lot for a team of this size. Care includes (but is not limited to) things like immunizations for children and pregnant mothers, sessions on health education in areas such as malaria prevention and hygiene promotion, reproductive healthcare, care for pregnant mothers, and mothers with young babies.
Staff come ready with the equipment for needed basic diagnosis, vaccines, medication for treatment, and teaching aids to use in their health education sessions. These services are all completely free of charge.
The reception to the medical outreach teams in communities has been fantastic. In a show of appreciation, the Akon North medical team has been provided with the best possible accommodation by the community leaders in that area, and in other locations in the community has made structures and rooms available for the team to operate out of particular treatment points.
A member of the Woman’s Group, Malual Bol, said, “I used to go to the Alek [healthcare centre] but it’s too far. But now I can go to the medical outreach team, get treated and go back home and look after my family.”
By taking healthcare directly to communities the people with access to care has increased significantly. People in need, especially women and girls, are no longer barred from accessing care due to distance, time, or the money required to travel to healthcare facilities.
Read more about our work in South Sudan.
Medical outreach teams provide life-saving access to care in South Sudan
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