Introduction to the Satellite Clinic

Introduction to Satellite Clinic

The Satellite Clinic is a branch of Angkor Hospital for Children located in Saut Nikum district, about 30 kilometers outside of Siem Reap town. It was born of a need to make quality healthcare more accessible to everyone, especially to those for whom it is difficult to travel to Siem Reap.

The idea for the Satellite Clinic began about five years ago. At this time the highway connecting Saut Nikum and Siem Reap town was poor: it would take about three hours to travel the short 30 kilometers from Saut Nikum to Angkor Hospital for Children. Even now that the road has improved drastically, the more rural location of the Satellite Clinic extends AHC’s services to a significantly larger area. The relatively close proximity to Siem Reap also allows for a tight relationship between Satellite Clinic and the main campus of Angkor Hospital for Children, the sharing of resources and capabilities.

In order to have a long-term impact in quality healthcare, the hospital would have to establish a system that was not parallel to the existing government system, but rather assisted in building quality into the system and sharing resources. For example, the Saut Nikum Referral Hospital, located just next to the Satellite Clinic bore an existing pharmacy, x-ray machine, and laboratory. By working together the Referral Hospital and Satellite Clinic have both been able to make use of these facilities, and an increase in quality standards of the services provided there has been marked since the Satellite Clinic opened in February 2010. This successful partnership with the government referral hospital is just one of many measures of success of the Satellite Clinic, and indicates the potential for successes like these at additional sites in the future.

The Satellite Clinic now has almost 9,000 patients registered! The services provided there open up a whole new realm of quality health care to those who need it most at little or no cost. 

Heart-surgery at AHC

AHC has performed open-heart surgeries with Singaporean team led by Dr. Sriram Shankar since May 2009. Once more the team came back this March to AHC to perform 6 more life-saving procedures, for many children in Cambodia this is the only chance for a full recovery.

Like 13 year old Sok Sreynak, who arrived at the Outpatient Department of AHC in October 2010. Coming all the way from the Kampong Cham Province she was treated at the Outpatient department due to walking difficulties and fatigue. After a closer examination, Sreynak was send to the Cardiology department and a hole in the upper chamber of her heart was diagnosed. Usually children with heart diseases are diagnosed at a very early age, so Sreynak’s case was special; the older a patient is the more critical the heart problem becomes so she needed open-heart surgery as quickly as possible. Finally on March 17^th Sreynak was operated and although she is still experiencing pressure in her lungs she feels much better and will be released from AHS within the next week.  

We would like to thank Dr. Sriram Shankar and his team for once again taking the time and sharing their expertise with AHC.

Volunteer at AHC!

Hello everybody, my name is Annika and I am a physiotherapist from Germany, who has the honour of working in the AHC for the next months. I have been here for one month now and I start to feel quite comfortable. There are so many special moments I have already experienced at AHC, but the Homecare department the one part of my work I feel needs to be mentioned!

Home Care means that not the patient comes to the hospital, but that the hospital comes to the patient. So who ever and whatever is needed gets into the van and we go. Sometimes we take nurses, doctors or physiotherapists. The project is designed for families who need regular health check ups and live so far off or are too poor to afford to come to Siem Reap on a regular basis. The kinds of patients we see are for example children with HIV or for the physiotherapists most of the neurological cases, with developmental delay, brain injuries or complex handicaps.

First of all it’s an adventure to see what happens when you don’t speak the same language as the child or the parents. Sometimes it takes hand and feet to get an understanding, despite the colleague who tries to translate as good as possible.

The next challenge is to get a proper treatment without the material we are used to in the west. I have to admit that the material is sometimes too much in Germany, but here it’s just the other way around. Last week we didn’t have a balance board for example, so we talked to the father and he built one out of a bamboo stick and a wooden plank. Like this it is most of the time. The patients live in rural areas, where you cannot buy anything (and they wouldn’t have the money anyways!) so you have to be creative to get what you want!

Last but not least it’s always a big thing when we come out. So sometimes all the neighbours and relatives will show up and watch you during the therapy. Not to mention all the children. For someone who is not used to company during treatment this can be something!

For me this is all new! And I hope to get a better stand in this department. I really like the neurological aspect of this work and I am glad to get an opportunity like this!

This is a great project and I am happy that it exists!

The Abbot Report: Family Nutrition and Education at AHC

The Abbot Report: Family Nutrition and Education at AHC

AHC’s nutrition program, generously funded by Abott Laboratories and Direct Relief International, provides practical, hands on nutrition education and support to hundreds of Cambodian families each month. In the first Quarter of 2011 some great achievements have been made by the Family Nutrition and Education Program. Some include the education of some 20 AHC staff members about nutrition, providing teaching programs on a variety of topics to thousands of families, over 650 Families were provided with free food , washing powder and Transport assistance in order to reach AHC for over 500 families.

Furthermore, an AHC nutrition team member and Volunteer Withey Kroll made sure that a follow up survey was conducted on children that entered the hospital suffering from malnutrition. They checked the children’s health and nutrition status.

 Para’s story is a good example of how important the Family Nutrition and Education program is- The one year old boy was admitted to AHC because of severe Malnutrition (Marasmo-Kwashiorkor).He lives around 60 kilometres away from Siem Reap town. His mother died when Para was only two months old because of Hypertension. Since then Para and his five siblings were moved to live with their single auntie who is accessory and ice seller at that village. Until being 8 months old, Para was only fed watery porridge because his auntie couldn’t afford to buy the appropriate formula milk. Finally in the last 2 months he developed general edema, skin inflammation that itches and vomiting. At first, Para was brought to see a Khmer Traditional healer who spit on his skin but it didn’t help so his auntie decided to bring him to AHC. After being hospitalized for 11 days Para changed a lot! His skin became much better and he gained weight- He was admitted with 5.8 kg and height 65 cm and he finally went home with a body weight of 6.5 kg

On behalf of the hundreds of Cambodian children that have been treated this year and the Angkor Hospital for Children staff we would like to express our sincere thanks to Direct Relief International and the ABBOTT family for its kind donation and support!

Happy Khmer New Year

Happy Khmer New Year!

Cambodian New Year or the Chaul Chnam Thmey, is celebrated for three days in April (the first month in the Khmer calendar). It usually falls on April 13th or 14th and represents the end of the harvesting season.

Already a couple of day’s earlier, people in Cambodia are preparing for the festivity. Houses are being cleaned (to drive out evil spirits) and special meals are being cooked.

Everyday people visit temples to get blessings from monks and priests. Various rituals are being performed  such as building a sand hill, representing Buddha’s five disciplines, on the temple grounds and decorate it with five religious flags one on the top and four around the sides.

Part of the joy includes playing games and dancing throughout the villages with friends and families.

Warmest wishes for the upcoming year from the staff and the children at Angkor Hospital for Children