The Clinical Analysis Laboratory at the Topuito Health Centre is one of KMAD’s recent investments. It has made a direct impact on improving healthcare services for a population of over 20,000 people.
The Topuito Health Centre, where the laboratory has been built, originally had two healthcare facilities, one building for outpatient consultations and another for maternity services. During the development of the 2019/2021 strategic plan, the local community requested the construction of a new maternity ward to provide greater comfort and convenience for expectant mothers.
With the completion of the new ward, the old maternity building was left vacant. KMAD received a request from the Larde District Government to convert the building into a clinical analysis laboratory to meet the growing demand for laboratory services in the Topuito area.
Before the opening of this laboratory, many patients had to be transferred to the Moma district hospital, which is more than 80 km away.
Domingos Waite, the Director of the Topuito Health Centre, outlined how a significant portion of these transfers involved women with serious haemorrhage complications before, during or after childbirth. These situations often required urgent transfers and, in some cases, resulted in fatal outcomes.
Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the laboratory has equipment that even some of the larger hospitals do not have. As a result, sometimes, the Larde Health Centre sends samples to be analysed at the Topuito laboratory.
The laboratory can conduct tests such as full blood tests and biochemical analysis. It also has the capacity to store donated blood reserves for use in emergencies.
The establishment of the laboratory not only improved the healthcare services available to the local community, but also provides regional expertise, reducing transfers to other healthcare centres and dealing with transfers from nearby facilities.