Investing More into Mobile Clinics

Access to basic services such as healthcare continues to be a major issue throughout the world. Most of us have seen large vans or RVs in our communities with postal signs offering several health services. These vans or vehicles are called Mobile Clinics (Mobile Units) [1]. Mobile clinics are customized vehicles that travel to underserved or hard to reach communities to provide healthcare [2].

It is thanks to these mobile clinics that some vulnerable populations have been able to get the medical attention and healthcare they need. These mobile clinics are cost-effective and have become reliable in providing primary care for people living in these underserved communities [2]. These mobile clinics are staffed either with doctors, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, community health workers, and much more [2].

Mobile clinics offer a wide variety of services from regular checkups, immunizations, health promotion, referrals to other specialists, antenatal care, postnatal care, and so on [2]. If you are like me you are probably wondering how these mobile clinics came about in the first place. Heard of Dr. Claudio Costa? Me neither.

According to the Dainese Journal, Dr. Claudio Costa, an Italian medical doctor created the mobile clinic as a way to rescue motorcycle riders injured during races in 1977 [3]. Back in the day, riders that were injured were placed into the ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital [3]. As most of you would guess, many riders without immediate first aid died during the desperate rush [3].

Dr. Claudio Costa realized that the structure of safety management at the circuits was inadequate and needed some serious revamping. All of this led to the creation of the mobile clinic where intensive care and anesthetics were at least offered to stabilize the conditions of the riders before taking them to the hospital [3].

The rest of the world picked up on Dr. Claudio Costa’s innovation and adopted the model to whatever tailored services they needed. According to recent studies, mobile clinics have the potential to reduce barriers to healthcare services and improve health outcomes of those in underserved communities [2].

With the ongoing pandemic, mobile clinics will be a great tool to use to reach these underserved communities and administers the Covid-19 vaccines. Therefore, both Developed and Developing countries need to invest more in these mobile clinics.

References

1. Mobile clinics. (2021). Retrieved 12 March 2021, from https://www.who.int/emergencies/partners/mobile-clinics

2. Malone, N.C., Williams, M.M., Smith Fawzi, M.C. et al. Mobile health clinics in the United States. Int J Equity Health 19, 40 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-1135-7

3. Rosso, D. (2021). Dottor Claudio Costa: “Freedom is the infallible protection.”. Retrieved 12 March 2021, from https://demonerosso.dainese.com/dottor-claudio-costa-freedom-means-infallible-protection

4. Image Cred: Mobile Clinic image from https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/mobile-clinic.html