Helping People Afford Basic Healthcare

The Jesus A. Datu Medical Center has been the hub of many projects simultaneously over the past few months.

On December 11 we had a cataract screening of 376 patients. With the help of 4 volunteer opthalmologists and 3 optometrists, 123 of these patients were found eligible for surgery. The other cases consisted of glaucoma patients and those who needed glasses. 170 eyeglasses were distributed to the latter group. Patients arrived as early as 5 a.m.! 10 tents had to be borrowed from the City Mayor's office to accommodate them.

A 3 day pterygium mission for more than 300 cases is planned in January, 2011. The cataract surgeries will also be done in January once we obtain the ambulatory clinic permit for the JADMC which is expected in January or February, 2011.

The weekly Mother Child Charity clinic continues every Friday with volunteer physicians (internal medicine, pediatrics, and OB/GYN). The Arellano research on Maternal and Infant Mortality for the town of Bacolor is ongoing, with 12 full time nurses supervised by a clinical nurse. Their research will establish the benchmark for the Zero Maternal and Infant Mortality Program for the entire province of Pampanga. In other words, for the Pampanga Province Zero Maternal and Infant Mortality Program, we have started with Bacolor because this is where the JADMC is located. The Mother Child Charity Clinic has so far treated more than 1,100 children and pregnant mothers in Bacolor and neighboring towns. This includes free medicines, volunteer doctors, and referrals for difficult pregnancies.

The World Medical Relief will assist us with providing more equipment for the eye clinic, laboratory, radiology, and operating tables.

We have 2 prosthetics technicians undergoing their final months of training. They will be based at the JADMC, where the prosthetics laboratory will be based.