Our Hopes and Plans for the Mission in Belize, Current Projects
The success of the medical care mission has been astounding. We sit back in awe and thank God when we reflect upon how far we have come since a few medical residents from the Medical College of Wisconsin went down to Toledo each year in the late 1990s. Since the clinic was dedicated in November of the year 2000, nearly one hundred volunteer lives are touched and changed each year and over a third of the population of the Toledo District directly benefits from our free health care services annually.
However, over the past five years, we have recognized that the need in Toledo is far greater than simple access to medical care. We have begun addressing public health and health care related needs and started to provide a nursing visitation service for homebound, physical therapy and dental services, and to facilitate public health research. Hillside Health Care International has become a conduit for public health and health care related service learning projects for students from all over the world in a variety of disciplines. Belize and the citizens of Toledo are in need of community health and allied health services that those in developed countries take for granted.
Three Year Strategic Plan
Demand for services grows as the population of our service area increases and the reputation of the clinic spreads. Interest among medical, nursing, and allied health students to volunteer with us currently exceeds our ability to host, due mainly to accommodations limitations.
Belize National Health Insurance Partnership
The HHCI Board is currently in discussion with the Belize Ministry of Health to become a provider of medical services under the new national health insurance initiative. HHCI has been asked by the MOH to staff another satellite clinic in Big Falls, and to work with the MOH is continuing health education and mobile clinic operations in several of the catchment regions of the district. We hope to acquire some operational expenses from this partnership, but will be unable to outfit and staff an additional clinic in Big Falls without additional resources.
Dental Services
Earlier this year, HHCI received a generous donation of equipment to outfit a complete dental office. The donor of the equipment is also building an addition on the Hillside Clinic structure of three additional clinic rooms to use for dentistry and a pharmacy dispensary. Once completed, HHCI will be operating dental services with volunteer dentists and collaborating with the single dentist in the district and the MOH to utilize the facility.
Expansion of Nursing and Therapy Services and Research
HHCI desires to develop a year-round nursing volunteer program that is as successful as the medical volunteer program. In addition we hope to develop a year-round therapy program for therapy volunteers to assist the long-term therapist volunteer and mentor. HHCI hosted the only therapist in southern Belize for the past two years. A physical therapist from Canada has recently made a commitment for all of 2007 to provide therapy services and develop a therapy volunteer program. We would also like to be able to coordinate the increasing requests from academic institutions for public health research opportunities. Such public health research is much needed in Belize.
Radiology and Laboratory Services
The Toledo district has only one x-ray machine that is housed at the Punta Gorda Polyclinic. The machine is outdated and requires films to be hand-dipped in chemicals for processing. The MOH has asked HHCI if we could provide additional x-ray services in our region. We are currently looking for a donor to provide us with a usable but quality x-ray machine so that we can provide x-ray services. A portable machine such as those used in emergency rooms would be best. Likewise, we currently do not have laboratory equipment for basic metabolic panels and hemograms. We would like to provide such needed diagnostic services if we can acquire donated equipment.
Requirements for Growth
We will need to build additional accommodations if we are to host additional volunteer nurses, dentists, and therapists. Plans are underway for acquiring the necessary funding for a new dormitory on clinic grounds. Mr. and Mrs. Roger Brinkman from Indiana are spearheading a campaign to raise the funds needed to build a dormitory in memory of their beloved daughter Abigail who was a medical student volunteer at the Hillside Clinic in October, 2005. Our current accommodation structure for the women volunteers is in need of replacement.
