Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for this.

I have asked Calvin to introduce himself here.

Raul

Hi All,

Thanks Raul, I am Calvin Townsend I am a profession vehicle designer, working out of the UK. I have been given the honour of working on the task of creating the perfect Mobile Health Clinic. The reason it will be perfect is that it will be designed by the people for the people, with a little technical guidance from myself of course. I am very much looking forward to working on this project, and equally looking forward to showing the world what community spirit can do.

All the best
Calvin

Calvin-

I posted the model pictures you sent me in the resource section, so if you want to discuss anything about them people can now refer to them to see what you're talking about.

Jennifer

Hi everybody,

I did some research on mobile health care units and I wanted to see if the following description is close to the community's expectations.
"A commercial-grade vehicle, not a retrofitted recreation vehicle; space and plenty of it, for work and for storage; all-metal construction, without wood or fiberglass; good patient flow inside the van, with wide doorways handicap accessibility; stairways that are easy to deploy and have hand rails; a rest room, lots of sinks, and enough refrigeration; a large electric generator; capability to load and unload equipment; a primary and secondary shore power plug-in; awning canopy for inclement weather; a defined office area; a defined waiting area that is separate from the exam area; large exam rooms; lab or pharmacy space; office equipment such as computer and fax, etc. advanced medical equipment, such as ECG, OB/GYN exam tables, etc; TV and VCR for playing educational/training tapes to staff and patients; good lighting; air conditioning and heat as required; plenty of electrical outlets; locks on all cabinet doors; stabilizing jacks." Calvin, what do you think - is that a comprehensive list or just a scratch on the surface.
Mobile health units can be designed with many different functions, but for our case it seems like we need a mobile health education unit/ a mobile medical distribution center/field services unit.
Benefits of mobile health care units:
-Access to health care, shared medical equipment and professional staff across many sites, predictor of future clinic site, links patients and doctors.

Please help me understand the project's objectives.
1. Primary Health Care-vaccinations, TB screenings, prescription drugs, consultation, blood work ?
2. HIV/AIDS Mitigation- medication, testing?
3. Family Planning- OB/GYN specialist, birth control, delivery?
4. Ant-Natal care program-vaccinations, nutrition advice?
5. P.C.T.M.T PROGRAM (what is PCTMT?)

May be the next step should be a discussion on how many exam rooms (adult/pediatric), how many people seated in each room, the room size of the lab/pharmacy. Minimum required personnel- a doctor,nurse- midwife, health attendants ( a driver?). Use of solar power and pictorial educational materials, etc.

Hey Bramuel,

I think it is also extremely important to have your thoughts in all the postings regarding the Mobile Health Care UNit because the idea is that eventually once we make it a reality is that the community will manage it.

Your input is probably one of the most important ones.

Look forward to your thoughts,

Raul

Hi everyone.

Tanja, yes absolutely correct all those things are required. The question is to be how to squeeze them all into a box which can cross terrain that has previously has only been passable by foot or motorcycle.

The traditional trucks are big expensive all terrain vehicles, which would find it difficult to follow the path of the motorcyclists. They are also expensive to run and would be difficult to recover in the event of an accident, or breakdown in the bush. So we have researched a smaller cheaper vehicle.

The possible solution, as in the pictures, offers an area 23' x 7' wide. I am in the process of designing the prototype for assembly here in the UK and have produced a video to show some of its capabilities. Working within the confines of a box that size we will have really think hard about how the internals need arranging.

I will be crashing and abusing the vehicle here to see just how much damage it can take. So will have feed back on how reliable and abuse resistant it would be. I will aslo research the supply and cost of spare parts and maintenance schedules.

Hi ALL

Thanks for your thoughts Tanja has mention some of the services we over to the community now

Our objectives.
1. Primary Health Care-
vaccinations, ,
prescription drugs,
consultation, blood work ?
2. HIV/AIDS Mitigation-
medication, testing?
3. Family Planning-
OB/GYN specialist,
birth control, delivery?
4. Ant-Natal care program-vaccinations, nutrition
in regard to the Mobile health clinic is the best way of reaching to privileged community.who is not able to reach to the hospital as you know we are in A totally slum area and this population is to high and the only way we can reach more people is to have a mobile clinic in place.
in designing of the mobile clinic I have seen some picture which Calvin send to me and I was very interested that the mobile van designed in that picture is the best to us since we are working in a slum area the trailer or A commercial-grade vehicle,can be very hard to save as in some places because of the road linking to the slum is very small and even the space and plenty of it, for work and for
storage.
Thanks all and hope the dream will come through one day
Best wishes
Bramuel

Hi Bramuel,

I have up loaded the test video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmlFyRF3O6E
It is not a public access but I have invited as many people as I can think of to be able to view it. If anyone has difficulty accessing give me a shout with their email and I will enable it.

From the comprehensive list it appears that we have two possible areas for Health care tasks. They are the inside which covers tasks that must be sterile private and cool, and the outside which is open to the elements. Maybe we can decide which one of the tasks where.

Calvin

Great video Calvin,

It is clear to me that you are really motivated about this project.

Let's find a way to continue going ahead in a way that we can provide you with the required information at all stages so we can have a good momentum.

Would you be able to maybe guide us in the information you are needing at every stage?

For example, could you post a list of the initial questions you need at this precise moment to be covered for design purposes?. Between us and specially with Bramuel's info we will be able to provide you the right information at the tight time in this way.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Raul

This is very nice video Calvin
Its a great prosses When i see this video i was wondering that you can go through our community photos that i have posted on the site,this will quide you on roads stuations because i have posted both the main roads and street roads iculded when rain and not rain.
I appreciate for the best work you are doing and am ready for any information you may want to add.
Best wishes
Bramuel :lol:

Hi there,

I was looking at the infant mortality data for Kenya...Bramuel, can you tell me the most common cause of maternal and infant deaths? According to the WHO about 8% of the maternal deaths are result of prolonged/ obstructed labor, 15 % due to puerperal sepsis,etc . Have you observed that in your hospital? If yes- we should take in consideration the WHO recommendations and Calvin can design the OB/GYN/delivery room accordingly.

PS- The mobile unit will have an OB/GYN room, right?

Best,

Tanja

Hi Tanja
I don't think that the mobile unit will have a delivery since is not allowerd to contact any delivery outsite the hospital in kenya. yes the mobile unit can have a OB room. as you know we just need some thing that will go in all areas that our support outreach team go's so something that
can be posible to the community.I so in the picture that Calvin send to me a five seater van with a box and i have discussed this with the community and amproved to be the best one to go in all areas weather we have rain or not.because is small a four weel drive and the community can afford to manage this.in the box insite let Calvin to his best that he can.
Hope the best to all
Bramuel

Bramuel,

Thank you :)

Hiya,
Just to keep everyone in the loop, I am working on the internal layout of the MHC (Mobile Health Centre) as I understand it. Hopefully that will give us a pictorial point of reference as what we can do with the inside. More importantly I hope it will be able to start the discussions about what actually happens inside.

Bramuel made an excellent point that the MHC could possibly "link up" with buildings such as churches etc. So maybe the discussions could take that into account.

Calvin

Hi Calvin
Thanks for your request, Yes Calvin since we are in a slum where is no a pick play ground in some places I think we will mostly going near the schools, churches and there will be sure of meeting more communities because we will be advertising that we are coming in this church/school on this date to make the community a where r of so we will have to link to church/school buildings
Bramuel