Kwale residents are accessing free medical care at Kwale Sub-County Hospital in a two-day camp targeting 2,000 patients and 100 cataract surgeries.

The camp, organised by the charity Mission Relief in partnership with the County Government of Kwale and the  National Government  Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), has brought together doctors from the United Kingdom and Qatar.

Mission Relief chairman Said Mabrook said the aim is to treat residents and improve their health, working hand in hand with Governor Fatuma Achani’s administration.

“Our target is to reach about 2,000 patients who will receive different treatments, including for diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses affecting our communities,” Mabrook said, adding, “Every patient is seen by a doctor, sent to the on-site laboratory for tests and given medicine, all at no cost.”

Mabrook said a similar exercise in Mombasa County last year treated 1,750 patients, while an eye camp at Coast General Hospital saw about 1,800 patients and 100 cataract operations.

“We want to hold this exercise in different counties so that we can work with devolved governments to tackle the diseases troubling our people,” he said.

Dr. Saqib Mughal, a UK-based doctor, said six British doctors travelled for the camp after the first one, held near Mombasa about 18 months ago, attended to roughly 1,800 people in two days.

“The Mission Relief team told us to go where the need is greatest, and that is how we chose Kwale County,” Dr. Mughal said.

Dr. Mughal said many patients present with high blood pressure and undiagnosed heart problems, largely because they skip medication or cannot afford it.

“People take the medicine for a while, see their pressure is fine, and stop. Then it goes up again,” he said, adding that doctors are therefore educating patients on why treatment must continue.

He said between 200 and 300 people were already queuing when the camp opened, and numbers were expected to rise on the second day as word spread.

Dr. Mughal added that the exercise is funded entirely through charity, with each visiting doctor raising money to travel.

The team hopes to make the camp an annual event and bring in specialists for complex surgeries, with Mission Relief setting up theatres.

Follow-up cases will be referred to local hospitals, with Dr. Abdulrahman, a mission relief doctor from the area, coordinating arrangements.

Kwale Sub-County Hospital medical superintendent Dr. Paul Gathuma acknowledged Governor Achani, Matuga MP Kassim Tandaza and Mission Relief for making the camp possible.

He said it mainly targets non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Patients are screened for blood pressure, sugar levels, temperature and pulse before consulting a doctor, with laboratory tests and imaging where needed.

“Many people did not know they have hypertension, and today they have benefited because they came for free screening,” said Dr Gathuma.

By Ramadhan Nassib