The second day of screening began with women pouring out the doors of the Borgne community hospital early in the morning. Walking into the hospital, there was not a single empty corridor. Crowds of women assembled to receive a number from Ben, our record keeper and community liaison extraordinaire. With such large clinic numbers, we decided to add a fourth station in order to keep up with the large volumes of women who had travelled many miles (often by foot!) to get screened. Indeed, today our women came from zones which were much further away than the women seen yesterday. One woman badly hurt her foot while walking to the hospital; nevertheless, she kept walking without complaint!
It seemed that more of today’s patients were screening positive for precancerous cervical lesions, and Dr. Thony wondered whether it could have been due to the remoteness of their home communities and overall lack of access to care. He is beginning to investigate the differences in screening outcome of women near Borgne versus women living in more remote regions.
Despite the large volume of patients, inside the clinic the attitude was very calm. Many times we noticed how quiet the room was as our trained nurses and doctors diligently provided care. These were real professionals at work! Once again, the CCC team took on merely an advisor/supervisory role.
Several of our nurses chose to get screened themselves at the end of day. For some of our nurses this was their first-ever gynecological exam. Tomorrow, we look forward to day 3 of screening, presenting the certificate of training to our participating healthcare professionals who have meet all of the necessary requirements, and travelling to set up the new, Second Phyllis Clinic in Tibuk.