Overview
The Simonga Rural Health Post is located in Livingstone District and 11km from Livingstone hospital. The health post serves a population of 5,990 spread over 10 communities. In this area there are outreach posts up to 10km from the health facility.
The health post has 2 nurses and 1 Environmental Health Technician.
Biggest challenges at the health post
The health post has good access to power and water, but the facility and surrounding communities face the following key challenges
- Limited availability of medication
- Limited resources
Despite having a high population, the facility lacks basic testing equipment and laboratory to enable diagnosis and treatment.
- Understaffed
Due to the large population and catchment area
- Very poor health literacy
33% of people in the community believe that HIV can be cured, and 25% of people have trouble understanding advice given to them by health workers. 40% of people do not know how Tuberculosis is spread, and 60% take herbal medicines prescribed by traditional healers. Lots of work to be done here!
Our role
On Call Africa began working with Simonga Rural Health Post in 2021. We will work with the health post to train Community Health Workers from within these communities. This will help to strengthen the existing health systems, ensuring that patients have access to medical advice and referrals when needed. The Community Health Workers will be provided bicycles once they complete their training to enable them to carry out home visits for sparsely populated communities.
We are also working with partner organisations to develop programmes to give access to telemedicine services, and to pilot a digital information system for case management. As well as supporting Community Health Workers. We will also work partners to address poor water, hygiene and sanitation practices, as well as transport links within the catchment area.
