The Alatening Health Centre
Over the past several decades, it has been the cry of the people of Alatening to have a functional health unit in the village for emergency care. The Alatening Community Health Center is an outreach health center from the existing integrated health center in Baba II and was operationalized in 2019.
It is located within the northern wing of the Alatening Multipurpose Community Center, with 3 rooms to accommodate a consultation room/office, hospitalization room, and two modern toilets. This health center had its first consultations in April 2019 with 193 persons consulted. Funding for the initial 2 weeks of operation, including consultations and medication, was exclusively provided by the people of Alatening.
The existing infrastructure of the health centre is limited to addressing only the most pressing emergency care needs. It is currently planned that additional beds for admissions, facilities for medication storage amongst others will be included in the health center. There is the need to develop the medication supply chain, procure additional medical equipment befitting of a health centre that can address the majority of community health challenges in Alatening. Consultations in the health centre occurs once a week, due to the fact that the State assigned nurse, is located in the Baba II Integrated Health Centre and cannot always be present in Alatening to provide critical and emergency care to the people of Alatening. In the absence of the State nurse, a volunteer retired nurse in Alatening offers his expertise to help alleviate critical emergency care needs from the center.
ACDA has set up a Health Committee to identify suitable partners and collaborators with whom it can work together towards transforming the Alatening Health Centre into a modern health center befitting of the 21st century.