We will first conduct a few days of clinics with a focus on health promotion in villages surrounding Roatan, Honduras and then travel to conduct primary care clinics located within 1-2 hours from Olanchito each day. Team physicians will evaluate and treat all patients presenting to the clinics and have the capability to care for ill patients, administer steroid joint injections, perform minor surgery, and fit for eye glasses.
We will serve people from underserved communities in rural and small villages of Olanchito, those who lack access to care and have a need for basic primary care services. The population of people served lack access due to transportation insecurities, financial insecurities, and medically illiterate, allowing for time to educate on basic preventative measures and things to identify before they become chronic or complex health conditions.
We will leave patients with some tools for primary preventative care practices, educating on nutrition and exercise. We will also provide some patient with injections that help to reduce pain and inflammation until the next team returns. Additionally, we have an opportunity to work alongside local doctors and nurses, who we can teach, and educate on how to sustain practices we may implement. The rotary club has also been helping to implement clean and potable waters to some of these communities to help reduce infectious diseases.
Lots of hard work, almost 700 patients seen in 5 different remote villages of Honduras. We gained insight into the needs of the community and how we can improve the continuity and sustainability of the work we enjoy doing. I connected with a mother and daughter I met last year and was able to see progress in her daughter’s condition, and the mom is now working as a village health worker helping to give back to her community. We performed joint injections, managed HTN and diabetes. There is more than can be done but a trip like this helps ignite a fire or continued service to improve access and quality to healthcare around the world - which I believe is a human right.
We also worked with a Honduran doctor who is currently working without pay as there is a government strike, putting our convenience of a guaranteed paycheck into real perspective. The doctors working in a local ER, have limited resources, never ending lines of patients, no pay and yet their smiles are infectious and their passion for what they do palpable. Very humbling to say the least. This did nothing for the community we served in Honduras but it is a level of humility I will carry back into my practice here and it helps remember my why.
