Leveraging Mobile Clinics As A Vehicle for Promoting Maternal And Child Health In Africa 

A mobile clinic in Kenya providing care for mother and child. Safari Doctors, Credit Neil Thomas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Access to quality healthcare has remained one of the critical focuses of the millennium development goals the 189 member states of the United Nations signed up to at the September global summit held at the UN headquarters in New York in 2000. These goals, which included improving maternal and child health, were succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 and effective from January 1, 2016.   

In realizing these objectives, especially in maternal and child health, many nations have committed resources to technological research to find better ways of providing healthcare services to its citizens thereby improving the Human Development Index of their respective nations.

One of the technological innovations that has impacted healthcare delivery, especially for developing nations is the Mobile Clinic, or what some would dub the Hospital on Wheels.

According to the pan-African advisory and consulting firm Africa Health Business, “a mobile clinic is a customized motor vehicle that travels to communities to provide healthcare. They deliver a wide range of settings”.

In Africa, there is still a good number of people living in rural area, according to Statista, the online German platform for data gathering “around 828.5 million people on the African continent lived in rural areas as of 2023. While the absolute number of the rural population has been increasing annually in some regions, the proportion of Africa’s population living in rural areas is generally declining due to rapid urbanization. At the beginning of the 21st century, the continent’s rural population was approximately 453.5 million.

What this portends for the continent is that the growing need for access to health services which addresses treatment, prevention, promotion especially for maternal and child health becomes imperative as one of the driving policies of governments across Africa as they focus on providing Universal Health Coverage to the people.

While efforts to provide funding for the building, equipping, and staffing of hospitals and health centers in rural Africa continue to remain an ongoing concern, the use of mobile clinics offers a valuable solution to ensuring that basic healthcare services like antenatal and postnatal services, immunization and nutrition services as well as ensuring early diagnosis, treatment, and interventions of medical challenges to forestall any complications before they become terminal.

Some Success Stories of Mobile Clinics in Africa 

Chad:

At the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, mobile clinics became instrumental in protecting the vulnerable population and ensuring that they got access to the vaccine. With support from the European Union through the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 4.8 million people representing 56% of the adult population in Chad had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Madagascar:

In February 2022, Batsirai and Emnati cyclones hit the country’s south-eastern region cutting off access to healthcare for communities in the region. The introduction of mobile clinics to address these challenges became instrumental in ensuring up to 1 million people had access to health services while also making it possible to discover other areas with health needs. In a World Health Organization Report Dr Yasmine Laetitia Lydie, Secretary General of Madagascar’s Ministry of Health noted that “the introduction of the mobile clinics enabled the restoration of health services, especially vaccination services, during the cyclone emergency. They have also covered areas that are usually inaccessible to health services, including isolated locations and villages.”

Uganda: 

To combat the growing concern about maternal deaths, the country introduced the Mother’s First Mobile Clinic Program which was aimed at delivering maternal healthcare to mothers. The initiative saw the reduction of maternal deaths by 38% between 2021 and 2023. 

The Future of Healthcare in Africa 

As Africa continues to seek ways to improve its healthcare deliverables, prioritizing investments in mobile clinics and health infrastructure, especially in rural areas should take center stage for governments and private partners. Continually pursuing technological innovations to support the efficiency of mobile clinics as well as aligning services with community interest and participation would go a long way in improving both the health access and status of their respective countries.

Okechukwu Nzeribe works with the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, in Anambra State, Nigeria, and loves unveiling the richness of African cultures. okechukwu.onicima@gmail.com