Malau clinic

We headed off to Big Bay in the north of Santo to visit Malau clinic. It is run by two Solomon Island nurses, Hilary from Koio in Malaita and Hemma from Kolombangara in the West. We arranged it 6 weeks ago but a week before we arrived Hilary was invited to a major malaria conference so in the end we met briefly at the boat  port and just visited Hemma.

After a 2 hour drive to Matantas we caught the speed boat and 30 minutes later were in Malau. H and H were posted here only 2 months ago and so are just settling in. However they have a good place with a nurse Aid Emson, a malaria microscopist and a couple of unpaid helpers who will be going on a village health workers training course.

These larger clinics are used for training purposes. It is good to have a microscopist though it is unfortunate that he has to use his microscope in the waiting room. Malaria is definitely down from previously mainly due to impregnated bed nets. However it is still around and causes much illness. They have a delivery area and a lying in room.

Annie did some tutorials on family planning and sexually transmitted diseases and I went through some basic clinical care. After work Hemma cooked us some lovely laplap especially cabbage in coconut cream.