Health Care Services
Along with functioning as a basic walk-in and preventative care facility, we were now able to deliver expanded services of maternity care–prenatal, delivery and post-natal care, provide immunization services and deliver health education. In 2018, a second building was completed to form the campus of the Ndoombo Community Dispensary. Our staff has also increased in size. We now have two nurse/midwifes, a part-time dentist, a lab technician and a full-time Clinical Officer.
Medical Treatments
The evolution of health care since the clinic opened in 2002 has been amazing! In early years, nurse/midwife Romini Mbise provided basic services, aided by a number of Mission Trip volunteers over the years that included doctors, nurses and dentists. In 2002, treatment was provided outside.
Once the actual clinic building was completed in 2003, Romini and visiting medical volunteers were able to provide a wide-range of services. Treatment has been given in the areas of wounds/lacerations/suturing, splinting of sprains or breaks, high blood pressure, diabetes, malaria, upper respiratory infections, pregnancy testing, prenatal care/urgent deliveries, basic arthritis care, AIDS awareness programs, and treatment of parasites and asthma. Dental services are provided by Dr. Polite Mbise, DDS.
In 2018, significant improvements were made that allowed the Clinic to offer more services and expand clinic hours: 1) A second, adjoining building was now finished and provided the room to offer more services.
2) The Mt. Meru Tumaini Health Clinic gained Tanzanian Ministry of Health support and qualified as a Dispensary. Our clinic was renamed the Ndoombo Community Dispensary. We could now deliver expanded services of maternity care–prenatal, deliver and post-natal care, provide immunization services and deliver health education.
3) The Dispensary increased its ability to offer a variety of basic point-of-care lab tests and services. The significant number of lab tests now available allowed staff to increase prevention and treatment for a wide variety of common ailments such as hypertension, diabetes, gastric ulcers, malaria, HIV, urinary tract infections, newborn care and more. It is now possible to combine health awareness education with treatment of diagnosed medical problems.
4) Our staff increased in size from a nurse/midwife and part-time dentist to two nurse/midwifes, a part-time dentist and a full-time Clinical Officer
Dental Care
Dr. Polite Mbise, Dentist, has been providing services at the dispensary since graduating from dental school in 2009. During the November 2011 Mission Trip, Scott and Evan Olsen put together the dental chair that Polite had purchased in Dar es Salaam. A few weeks later, Polite was able to acquire an air compressor and all the individual tools needed to enable him to do more than extract a tooth. In 2015, a generous donor gave funds to buy an apex locator—a piece of dental equipment that tells the dentist how far down the root of a tooth is located. The dispensary is pleased to have working equipment as well as a dentist working there two days a week.
Vision and Hearing Screening
In additions to providing basic health care and treatments for a wide variety of medical conditions, mission trip volunteers have also offered vision testing, distribution of glasses and now hearing assessments.