Team PATA

Reporting Back - Clinic Goals

At each PATA forum, clinics select tasks to improve the quality of their service. An analysis of the tasks in the table below demonstrates the impact of the annual PATA forum themes on the tasks taken on by clinics. As the table shows, some tasks (e.g. staffing issues) are often ongoing and cannot be dealt with conclusively in just one year, and so come up again each year. Clinic-task selection is influenced considerably by the theme of the PATA forum each year, and thus future forum topics need to be selected very carefully.

After the 2009 regional PATA forum, roughly fourteen different categories of tasks could be identified, reflecting the diverse array of problems the clinics have to deal with on a daily basis. A number of clinics set goals relating to the PATA forum theme of Advanced ARV therapy by actively looking for lipodystrophy in young patients, reviving the development of protocols for drug toxicities e.g. Tisungane Clinic (Malawi) and identifying all failing children and those on fragile regimens e.g. Tygerberg clinic (SA).

A recurring category for PATA clinics is that of providing child-friendly care centres. The George clinic (SA), for example, wants to build a play area and implement the 'Say and Play' materials which are aimed at caregivers of children aged 0 to 6 years. Many clinics also plan to improve their networking with other clinics in order to exchange information; the Baylor Botswana clinic want to improve their collaboration with Mpilo OI clinic (Zimbabwe) by exchanging information regarding best practices.

Dora Nginza Hospital (SA) planned to set up community meetings to strengthen their foothold in the community and Bophelong (Lesotho), Zoe-Life (SA) and Newlands (Zimbabwe) clinics all intend to improve their administration by compiling training materials. Infrastructure was a category which six clinics wanted to focus on and a handful also intended to improve the functioning of their pharmacies.