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H ealthcare professionals across Canada are catching on to something special. An increasing number of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and medical students are volunteering their time and skills to offer free health care to poverty-stricken communities in the developing world. And they are discovering a resource that enables them to make it happen.
In 2008, RN Esther Kern travelled with pediatrician Dr. Fabian Gorodzinsky and a team of healthcare professionals to Honduras to offer free medical services to an underprivileged community. Dr. Jennifer Wilson from Uxbridge, Ontario was so excited about her upcoming mission to Ghana that 25 healthcare professionals caught the vision and decided to join her. Pharmacist Roger Mailhot worked closely with a team of doctors and nurses in the Dominican Republic. A team of five healthcare professionals travelled to China immediately after the earthquake in Sichuan province to offer their assistance. Dr. Charles Czarnowski of the University of Ottawa takes medical interns with him every year to Panama. Dr. Colleen O’Connell of Fredericton, New Brunswick has been returning regularly to her special project in Haiti with medical teams since 2003. And the list goes on… The people and their missions are vastly different and yet the common threads are obvious. These Canadian healthcare workers are all driven by an awareness of the need beyond our borders and a deep motivation to do what they can to alleviate suffering and make a difference. And they have found an easy and effective resource to enable them to do so. They have all carried Physician Travel Packs from Health Partners International of Canada with them on their medical missions.
  
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What is a Physician Travel Pack?
The PTP is a hand-carried medical kit. It consists of two boxes designed for ease of mobility, containing a wide range of in-date primary care medicines including antibiotics, analgesics, antiparasitics, antifungals, vitamins, topical creams, and basic supplies. HPIC endorses the World Health Organization Guidelines for Drug Donations. The contents of the PTP have been designed by Canadian doctors with extensive experience in overseas medical missions. Healthcare companies from all sectors of the industry donate the product for humanitarian purposes.
HPIC puts it all together, and offers a one-stop solution to Canadian healthcare providers travelling overseas. The Physician Travel Pack is a highly effective way to deliver medical care directly and quickly to the people who need it most.
What’s so special about the PTP?
We know that millions of people around the world do not have access to basic medical care. Often, even when they are able to reach a healthcare worker or clinic, the needed medicine is not accessible because they cannot afford it, or because it is simply not available at all. The hands of local healthcare providers are often tied, because they are able to diagnose but do not have the means to treat. Many suffer and die needlessly from preventable and treatable infections and diseases.
We also know that Canadian healthcare professionals want to help -- by going, by treating, by training and by equipping local staff to sustain the work. But it is often difficult for them to assemble an appropriate assortment of medicines in preparation for their medical missions. And Canadian healthcare companies are willing to donate products, if they know they will be distributed effectively and used safely.
HPIC’s Physician Travel Pack offers the solution. PTPs equip Canadian healthcare professionals travelling overseas on medical missions with the primary care medicines most needed to meet the desperate needs.
5,000 and counting…
In January 2009, Peterborough physician Dr. Hardy Friesen carried the 5,000th PTP from HPIC on a six-week medical mission to Honduras. He was accompanied by four other doctors, one dentist, five nurses and some medical students, all part of the Peterborough Medical Brigade.
"The 5,000th PTP is a significant milestone for us," said HPIC President Glen Shepherd. "Since the PTP program began in 1994, millions of people around the world have been given the gift of health and hope by Canadian medical professionals such as Dr. Friesen and the members of the Peterborough Medical Brigade. Being able to partner with him on this milestone occasion underscores the important humanitarian work being carried out by Canadians around the world and we thank them for it."
Dr. Friesen has been on seven medical missions since 2001 to Honduras, where Canadian teams work with local “Friends of Honduran Children,” providing free medical assistance to children for whom no treatment is otherwise available.
Dr. Friesen says it is "like Christmas" when he arrives in Honduras and opens the PTP. "It is well packed and contains so many essential medicines that we need to treat the patients."
Friends of Honduran Children run local clinics in rural areas and a team normally sees up to 1,500 patients during a visit. More than 100,000 Hondurans have been treated by the group since its inception in 2001. The Peterborough Medical Brigade sends three teams each year to the Central American country.
“Don’t leave home without it”
Dr. Neal Stretch of Hanover first went to the African country of Ghana six years ago with his wife and son to visit the work of a Canadian NGO working there. When they saw the desperate need, they attempted to run a makeshift clinic out of a school, but found that they were extremely limited because of the difficulty of acquiring the necessary medicine and supplies. After the first exploratory mission, Dr. Stretch knew two things for sure. He would be going back, and he would be taking a Physician Travel Pack with him.
Dr. Stretch has been back to Ghana every year with a team of medical professionals and volunteer support staff to operate mobile clinics in remote tribal communities. “The PTP has become an invaluable tool in our work. It is integral to the success of our program,” says Dr. Stretch: “I would never leave home without it!”
The ripple effect
Whatever the location of the medical mission, the impact for individuals, many of whom are seeing a doctor for the first time, is immediate. They are healed of diseases, wounds and infections. Perhaps more importantly, the ripples of restored health continue into the community for a long time.
Fathers return to work to support their families. Infants are given a chance to thrive. People relieved of constant pain begin to contribute to their families and society. Children are able to go to school and learn. People living in poverty begin to have the strength to work toward change.
When a Canadian volunteer team returns to the same community year after year, the local community can build up its own healthcare capacities through training, building facilities, increasing services, providing preventive care, and offering public health education.
Dr. Stretch’s medical work contributes to the overall improvement in the lives of the local population. “The work of the medical teams has opened the door for establishing schools and other services,” says Stretch. “We are also training local healthcare assistants. These are short-term missions with long-term benefits.”
PTP contents
You no longer need to collect samples and leftovers for your medical missions. The PTP provides a complete range of primary health care medicines and supplies in one place.
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