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Centro de Salud and Ambulance
Posted by Mazru on August 14, 2024, 6:53 am
A new Centro de Salud and ambulance service, which will also serve La Manzanilla, will soon be available at Agua Caliente, 22 min drive north from here. Our Centro de Salud will be closing down.
Hola, according to La Huerta Secretary Antonio Avila, healthcare delivery budgets have been reduced, causing the closing of town clinics.
Our local clinic does not have a doctor and will be closing down. Medical services for the area will be provided by a new clinic in Agua Caliente, whose inauguration will be on the 20th of this month.
Services there will be more comprehensive to include: 24/7 Physician coverage, free 24/7 ambulance service, free and connected to 911 Lab and pharmacy (I don't know the cost if any) Xrays (I don't know the cost if any) Some medical specialty coverage
We have never had this type of free medical service in La Manzanilla. The 9 - 3 clinic schedule here had inconsistent coverage/service and few medications for the indigent. The best was to receive basic primary care from a new physician, completing service hours.
On the surface, the new clinic services appear to be a godsend. However, a big drawback is for the indigent who don't have transportation.
Because this clinic will service many area towns, accessibility and wait times may be an issue, along with other issues we don't know or expect. And, of course, new beginnings usually experience problems. We'll see. On the whole, I'm excited but our family has a car. Cruz
We contacted the Director of Hospitals to ask about the closure of our Centro de Salud. She assured us that it was not closing. So, as usual, different answers to the same question. Our ambulance here in La Manzanilla will remain in service in any case.
Hola, Jeanne. This is the regular order of affairs and information from almost any governmental office in Mexico: confusion, misinformation, and changes everywhere. It can be a moving target that is hard to grasp. So, having different information in this case is no surprise, lol.
My information says there isn't a doctor at our clinic here in LM, and there will not be a replacement. The nurse is here now during clinic hours but will be moving on to employment in Cihuatlan. I'll check with her tomorrow to see if I can get any clarification on the matter, lol.
With the Agua Caliente clinic in place, your ambulance service clients won't have to travel as far to receive emergency medical care, which I consider a plus for them and your crew.
We'll see what enlightenment news tomorrow brings. Cruz
Well, Jeanne, you were mostly right about the Centrol de Salud not closing here in La Manzanilla.
I visited the nurse, Kenya Lincoln, and she told me the following:
-THE CLINIC IS NOT CLOSING, but there will not be a doctor on duty this year. Perhaps in the future, when a graduating doctor chooses LM to complete their service hours. We were not lucky this year to attract one.
Nurse Kenya shared the services she will be providing, Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 2:30 pm:
-Scorpion sting antivenom application and it is free (This is hard to believe because it is so expensive).
-First Aid
-Vaccinations (I don't know which, but probably targetting children)
-Family Planning
-Shots, if you bring the substance.
Some medications are available, but only with prescriptions from other Salud system clinics, such as Melaque and Cihuatlan.
I used the Centro de Salud for basic medical needs in the past and have taken friends for the same. I have been pleased with their care and service. However, the clinic wasn't always open, or the physician was out. There was never a sign to say when they would reopen.
The clinic space is probably unavailable as an ambulance landline base. Would the storage unit work?
Jeanne, while waiting for La Huerta to train your crew on antivenom administration, I would check to see if your crew's scorpion sting victims can now receive antivenom shots at the clinic.
Well, the information one finds is always interesting. La Huerta Officials had told us that the clinic would close. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get. Cruz
Just a little additional information: the immunization clinics at Centro de Salud already started early last spring. We made our ambulance base available to them, and children were brought in by the van-full to get vaccinated. It was a beautiful thing. My understanding is that the antivenom for scorpions has not yet been brought to La Manz. Once it’s here the Centro Salud will have it as well as the ambulance should one need it when the Centro de Salud is not open. We were promised the antivenom on August 7, but the Director of Hospitals wasn’t ready to distribute it yet. We have submitted all the required paperwork and signatures, but we’re still waiting. Additionally I was told that the Emiliano Zapata ambulance is no longer in service. I’m not sure if it’s because of mechanical or administrative difficulties. I hope it’s back in service soon. We need all the help we can get in our beautiful Costalegra!
The issue still remains though that the LM ambulance is not registered with 911 or Proteccion Civil. At least now there will be back up if people can’t get hold of our ambulance through cell phone numbers - when 911 is called, the Agua Caliente ambulance will be dispatched.
Victor, head of Proteccion Civil in La Huerta, said he would connect us with the 911 number, and in spite of multiple calls and messages, it hasn't happened yet. I'm still trying!
Hola, Jeanne. One must understand that 911 is not a county entity like Victor. Victor heads Proteccion Civil at the County level and can not interfere with 911 rules, and we can not qualify for 911 coverage until an essential 911 requirement is met.
The requirement states that a landline phone must be in place in LM 24/7 to receive 911 calls. It can not be a cell phone.
I'm taking the opportunity to discuss establishing an ambulance base at our Centro de Salud Clinic office if and when it ceases to provide services.
This is a very long shot and perhaps not worth mentioning. We would need several volunteers daily to answer the phone and contact ambulance crew members for service delivery, or we could have two or three paid ambulance workers. Ambulance dispatchers carry a lot of responsibility and need training to provide life-saving direction.
However, 24/7 landline phone coverage is needed to qualify for the 911 emergency call system. For 911 emergency call service inclusion.
Otherwise, our best alternative is to continue with our present unreliable cell phone coverage and hope that calls reach our dispatcher. We are very aware that cell phone connectivity is hit-and-miss here.
So, developing a landline base might be worth the effort. Emiliano Zapata operates an ambulance base with three crew members. La Huerta and the town of Zapata remunerate them.
When anyone in LM calls 911, a 911 operator calls the Zapata ambulance base. The on-turn Zapata crew member tries to contact our LM dispatcher, who tries to reach an LM ambulance crew member. When our dispatcher can't reach a crew member, and this happens, Zapata would be called to send their ambulance.
As you can see, a lot of valuable time is lost. Just an idea to ponder. Cruz
PS: I forgot to call the nurse at Centro de Salud until now to find out if and when the local clinic service will be terminated. Manana, lol.
Hola, Mazinka. Yes, the 911 emergency call system will serve LM through the new Agua Caliente ambulance base.
However, it will operate the same way as now, with 911 first calling the Agua Caliente base instead of the Emiliano Zapata base. They will, in turn, try to contact our local ambulance service dispatcher, who will try to contact our local crew for service. If no one is available, and it happens, then the Agua Caliente ambulance will be sent.
Last month, a 911 call was received from LM concerning a young out-of-town drowned victim. The Zapata base reached our local crew, and they went to the scene.
This is just to be clear that a locally made 911 call will not illicit the immediate dispatch of an ambulance from Agua Caliente to LM. There is a protocol to follow. Cruz
PS: If we can't reach our service here, can we call them directly? I don't know.
on August 14, 2024, 6:53 am
Cruz 
