We conducted the Non
Communicable Disease program (NCD) in Duy Xuyen, a rural district in Quang Nam
province. Our goal was to trial the protocol in a setting with less resources
and presumed lower community knowledge on chronic disease.
We began with
training sessions for the health care providers at all local clinics in the
district. We helped the staff to screen for hypertension and diabetes following
the protocol that had been developed by our founder Dr Josh Solomon. Bedside
training was conducted by our physicians. We equipped these clinics with
glucometers, strips, lancets, medication and other supplies. We have continued
to do regular follow up with these 3 clinics. We also conducted refresher training for medical staff to share about its effectiveness and the
different experiences they have encountered in controlling NCD disease.
Each clinic manages
about 30 patients with the medications provided by VNHIP. These patients live
in a remote small village accessed by
boat. Although they live in peace with picturesque green fields, river and
fresh air, they however lack medical knowledge because transport is too
difficult to access the center hospital. When they become unwell they are often
not aware of what they should do. They listen to the guidance of other people
to try many different ways instead of taking prescribed
medication. Some of them stop taking medication when they feel better and
suffer relapses of their illness.
After six months 3
clinics applied VNHIP’s NCD protocol, Doctors and
nurse now have confidence and a sound understanding of how to make NCD’s easy
to manage. They report their patients are now attending to their appointments
at the clinic on schedule without their reminder. The patients told us that
they are happy that they get more education on the diseases, diet, and
lifestyle that they were unaware of before.
It was a pleasant surprise when we
heard the patients talking to each other about how to control their disease
with VNHIP’s NCD protocol. They said that
not only do they take medication, they also focus on changing their eating
habits and lifestyle. The diabetes patients know the signs of hypoglycemia, do not skip meals, and when working
hard they know to have a snack, to control
their blood sugar. The patients also said that they share the knowledge they have gained about NCD’s with their
immediate and extended families. This is a great achievement for VNHIP.
