February 24, 2022
News
Charles Vitek, Regional Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), visited rural ambulatories in Dusheti municipality and got acquainted with the results of Caritas Czech Republic’s work that aims to strengthen primary healthcare in Georgia. CDC’s delegation attended our clinical experts’ activities and supervision process on the spot and learned how rural family doctors are using the electronic information systems introduced by Caritas Czech Republic in practice.
CDC is Interested in the Results of Our Work for Georgia's PHC
Within the Czech Development Agency-supported project, Caritas Czech Republic works to strengthen the primary healthcare system in Georgia through the introduction of improved clinical guidelines for family doctors, the development of countrywide comprehensive IT solutions, and through the provision of trainings and on-spot mentoring. The regional office of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was interested in the results of the mentioned activities and visited ambulatories in Ananuri and Pasanauri to get acquainted with the ongoing activities on the spot.
Jan Blinka, Country Director of Caritas Czech Republic in Georgia and project experts — Marina Shikhashvili and Nato Shengelia hosted the guests from CDC in Dusheti. During the visit, Caritas Czech Republic handed over glucometers and updated clinical protocols to the medical staff of Dusheti municipality ambulatories.
„The doctors and nurses appreciate very much all technical, as well as material support, which we are providing to them. Some of the doctors did not receive any relevant professional re-training for more than ten years, and thus it is hard for them to keep up with current knowledge and clinical approaches,” — said Jan Blinka, Country Director of Caritas Czech Republic in Georgia.
Caritas Czech Republic Importantly Supports Georgia’s Healthcare System
Since 2015, Caritas Czech Republic has been supporting the Georgian Government's efforts to reform the healthcare and social systems. Thus, implementation of the Czech Development Agency-funded project is a part of Caritas Czech Republic's broader contribution to the improvement of the country's healthcare system.
In July 2021, Caritas Czech Republic presented to the Ministry of Health of Georgia a Unified Electronic Management Information and a 0-6 Child Health and Development Surveillance Information Systems. The latter is an important result of the cooperation with the UNICEF Georgia that aimed to ensure continuity of maternal and child health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the successful completion of the first project in 2021, with the financial support from the USAID, in 2022 Caritas Czech Republic and UNICEF started a new initiative to ensure the continuity and quality of maternal and child health services not only at the primary health care level but to support hospital doctors in Tbilisi and regions, too.
In August 2021, Caritas Czech Republic started piloting a Slovak-made innovative solution Scase that will help Georgia’s primary health care system in measuring different vital signs of the patient, which helps not only to monitor patient´s status but also to detect some of the non-communicable diseases like hypertension or diabetes. After four months, S-case company from Slovakia and our team successfully concluded the project. It was proven that this device is efficient for PHC facilities located in rural areas as it increases the productivity of healthcare providers, detects new cases of different non-communicable diseases, and as it enables fast and accurate data-sharing and storage in electronic format.
Furthermore, after the COVID-19 outbreak, our organization rapidly tailored its activities to cope with the pandemic, and with this in mind, conducted online trainings for rural doctors in the management of mild COVID-19 cases, post-covid complications, and vaccination side effects. Moreover, Caritas Czech Republic handed over 50 computers to rural ambulatories in pilot regions to enable family doctors to effectively run their clinical practice.
Through various projects, Caritas Czech Republic has supported the development of long-term childcare and palliative care services, as well as the establishment of regulations/standards for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Georgia. Our organization has been actively working on the awareness raising campaigns on cancer prevention and screening importance, a clear example of which is the construction of Zugdidi Screening Center in 2019 and ongoing activities for improvement the quality of gynaecologic cancer care in West Georgia.
