New World Hope Alshifa Clinic & Maternity Home
Free Health Care Facility For The Poor
In Pakistan, 80% of women deliver their babies at home, while skilled birth attendants and trained traditional birth attendants (TBA) conduct 20% of deliveries. Only six in ten mothers reported seeing a health professional (i.e. a doctor, nurse, or Lady Health Visitor), at least once for antenatal care, according to the recent Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Proper medical attention and hygienic conditions during delivery can greatly reduce the risk of complications and infections that often lead to serious illness or death of a mother and/or her baby. In Pakistan, only 39 percent of births are delivered by a health professional and 34 percent of deliveries take place in health facilities.
Health services are of great importance for the women in the country. A vast majority of our women have a very miserable and poor health condition. They have to work for the whole family and bring up the children. If good health care is not provided to them, their health will deteriorate, the death rate at time of deliveries will increase along with infant mortality.
NWHO established the New World Hope Alshifa Clinic & Maternity Home in 2008, NWHO successfully operates healthcare clinic in Rawalpindi. which provide free medical services to the poor families in surrounding areas and afgan refugees located between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
NWHO supervise, maintain and provides the need of the clinic. The clinic is equipped with a medical laboratory including equipment to treat patient health, But unfortunately due to a lack of funds we cannot as yet open the In-patient department to admit patients and carry out surgeries. We have done all this with minimal funds as all of our volunteers pay all of their own expenses as well as the charity’s administration fees and by building up close, trusting relationships with local people.
Currently, the clinic operates five hours a day due to limited resources. However, during these five hours, doctors at the facility see an average of 40 patients per day. NWHO has registered 300 desperately poor families for free treatment.
Most of the local poor people and refugees in the camp live and work under terrible conditions. The most common health problems result from a lack of food, vitamins, unsuitable environment and very heavy and non stop work. There have been several cases where a mother or her new born baby have lost their life due to unsafe methods used by untrained midwives or lack of access to a medical center
The clinic is fully staffed with two doctors (one male and one female) and a nurse. Aside from providing medical treatment, New World Hope Alshifa Clinic & Maternity Home has regular programs of health education for women to educate them about the importance of hygiene, how to acquire healthier food, and how to look after babies and children. The programs also educate them about different vaccinations, serious illnesses, etc.
Patients of New World Hope Alshifa Clinic & Maternity Home pay a small fee of 20 rupees (= 32 US cents) to get registered. After that, all medical check ups, tests and prescribed medicines are provided free of charge. Common medical tests such as typhoid, malaria, hepatitis B & C, and other routine tests are carried out in the clinic. If any patient suffers from a serious medical condition that cannot be treated at the clinic, we immediately send the patient to a well-equipped hospital in Rawalpindi city.
Treatment of Tuberculosis
TB is a contagious disease widely spread in the urban areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Through referral system we help TB patients in their treatment. We have established good relationship with few medical institutions where TB patients are treated free of costs.
In order to eradicate and treat tuberculosis, a preventable and curable disease, the School-to-School Tuberculosis Intervention Program (TIP) was also initiated in , 2007, and facilitates students who test positive for Tuberculosis through the Mobile Healthcare program. NWHO has established a reliable relationship with the medical institutions for this particular program. The program began in May 2007 and has provided services to over 10 patients every month. New World Hope Alshifa Clinic & Maternity Home are provided free Medicines to the needy TB patients.
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