CAMBODIA Church-Run Makeshift Ear Clinic A Boon To Poor Patients

Posted: 11th October 2006

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- Kol Chansamphose, a 21-year-old Buddhist woman, has come again from her province to the Jesuit Service Cambodia office in Phnom Penh.

She is sitting on a bench in the basement, waiting her turn to enter the consultation room of the makeshift ear clinic run by the Catholic NGO. The place is simple, with a cupboard for documents, another for medicine and some posters on health education. Chansamphose told UCA News she has visited the clinic several times for ear examinations, traveling 50 kilometers from her home in Kompong Spoue province, west of the capital. She finds the doctors here warm and welcoming.

"I don't pay anything for my ear checkups," she revealed, adding that the clinic gives her free medicine and reimburses her transportation costs.
The young woman has suffered from ear problems since the age of 10, as a result of complications from measles. She was brought to a public hospital at the time, but doctors said they could not help her, she recalls. This upset her, but she felt better after coming to the Jesuit clinic. Here, Chansamphose explained, doctors said they could help her, and she is scheduled for ear surgery in October.

Ouch Titratha, 20, from Takoe province, 80 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, also considers the clinic a boon for poor people.
According to its manager, Kit Sorphany, the clinic was started in 1998 to "help all ear patients," regardless of race, religion or economic background.

The clinic provides free examinations and medicine, arranges surgery and helps people with their transportation costs, she said, but added that patients are free to donate money to the clinic. It now has branch clinics in Battambang and Siem Reap, neighboring provinces in northwestern Cambodia.

Sorphany told UCA News that the clinics have regular doctors who treat patients but do not perform surgery. Five salaried local doctors work at the Phnom Penh clinic, one in Battambang and two in Siem Reap.
Surgery is performed by doctors from Australia, France and the Netherlands who come to Cambodia five times a year. These doctors visit for five days at a time and perform operations at all three branches.

Khourn Som El, a nurse at the clinic in Phnom Penh, told UCA News that if a case is too serious for them to treat, they send the person to a public or private hospital. He added that he finds it very meaningful to help the poor in his job, even though he has to deal with problems when patients do not follow doctors' prescriptions or do not turn up for appointments.
According to Sorphany, the Phnom Penh clinic's doctors also treat villagers in Bongteay Meanchey, Kampong Speu and Takoe provinces. She said the clinic gets some support from Christians in Germany.
The clinic is open 8 a.m.-4.30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and 8 a.m.-noon on Saturday.

According to the 2005 Jesuit Service Cambodia annual report, the three ear clinics treated 5,297 patients and organized four weeks of surgery for 102 of those patients during the year.

Article Source: UCAN