Sweetwater Primary Care Clinic

     Today Jamil, Hennie and I visited the Sweetwater Primary Care Clinic which is a rural clinic affiliated with Edendale Hospital.  I drove there with Tim Kerry who is a primary care physician in charge of multiple clinics.  During the ride, he enlightened me about the clinic system and his concept of the role of the primary care physician in South African healthcare.  Tim feels that the GP is the cornerstone of the system and what is keeping things afloat.  He has no trouble recruiting young GP's for all of the posts allocated to him.  The problem is that there are too few posts.  He leads clinics in a variety of fields from HIV treatment to psychiatry.
     Sweetwater Clinic is in a poor area and is staffed by nurses, with one physician coming 4 days per week.  The grounds are quite pleasant and notable are lovely vegetable gardens which the hospital maintains to act as a role model for the community.  The waiting areas are packed with patients who arrive before the clinic opens at 6 AM.  The nurses seem quite efficient and pleasant and all have been there for quite some time, which makes the patients feel more comfortable.  There are TB, and HIV clinics on site.  We got to visit an ante-natal and counselling clinic where we met a wonderful counsellor.  She has programs that include fathers in support groups and HIV counselling.  She, herself, is HIV positive and acts as a role model for young people to be open about preventing and treating the disease, and helps to remove the stigma.
     Larissa spent the day at Edendale Hospital where she spent time with the pediatrician in charge of the sexual abuse program, a very busy program here in South Africa.  She met with a social worker who so moved her that Larissa went out with her own money to buy supplies off of this person's wishlist.
     That is all for this week.  I will post 1 more time on Monday and then we return on Wednesday.
Marty