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Report 2011
The clinic is now in its eighth year. Opened in 2004 to date we have treated more than 275,000 patients. Prior to the establishment of the clinic there was no medical treatment available to the community .A long journey over a very bad road was the only way men, women and children could reach any medical service. Most could not afford the cost and survived or died without any medical intervention. With the opening of The Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic all changed for the people in Cape Maclear.
Today the clinic is widely recognised as one of the best clinics in the country. With Dr Van Os and her medical team patients are seen and treated promptly. The cost of treatment is kept to a minimum and should a transfer to a larger hospital be required, the clinic, using its own ambulance, provides transport at no cost to the patient. The ill person is transferred with all the medical assistance that their condition requires. Medical personnel, intravenous medication and if necessary oxygen accompany the patient on their journey to the closest hospital. In an impoverished country like Malawi this facility is quite unique. The ‘Billy’ Clinic as it is locally known, plays a vital role in the community in Cape Maclear, Malawi. Today the clinic frequently receives patients from areas well outside the immediate catchment area. The clinic offers medical treatment to the many foreign visitors who visit Malawi during the cooler months of June, July and August. With Dr Van Os and her medical team patients are seen and treated promptly.
The Trust opened a HIV/AIDS clinic in 2009. Counselling, testing and antiretroviral drugs are available at the clinic. There are 700 patients attending the clinic on a monthly basis all receiving drug treatment, which allows them to continue to live and look after their families in the community. Local people have been trained as counsellors and are NAC (National Aids Commission ) accredited.
In addition to the primary care unit plus an inpatient unit, the clinic also provides family planning services, an eye clinic, a malaria education programme, a school bilharzia treatment programme and an under fives feeding clinic.
Figures to date indicate a 10% increase in patient attendance year on year and more than 275,000 patients have been seen at the clinic since 2004 to live and look after their families in the community.
In a country where more than 50% of the population live in poverty with an income of less that one dollar per day and 500,000 people living along the lake-shore ( Africa’s third largest) have little or no access to medical care, continued expansion of primary medical care is a cornerstone of our organisation.. Provision of outreach medical service in some of the neighboring villages where currently there is none is proposed. A medical team from the Billy Clinic, travelling twice weekly to the area by boat will provide primary medical care for thousands of people who live in these isolated villages.







