How’s it going everyone? Just wanted to check back in with another little report. Today we visited Tigre and took a boat over to a primary health care facility! It was great because I had never seen something like it in this context. The place was very small but was equipped with an extensive amount of medical supplies and other necessary resources. We had a little tour and discussion. I also found this facility to be very interesting because it resided in a community surrounded by water. We also got an in depth introduction to some operations and general information from our guide as we rode over to the facility. 

The importance of primary care and resources to a functioning healthcare system stems from the fact that primary care is always available and is most likely equipped with professionals who can treat you as you are attended to. Especially looking at what we saw today, their operation included professionals who would shift out concentrated medical areas per day of the week in order to be able to provide care to everyone with specific needs. To add, each professional knew a little about each field and the flexibility of the group also emphasized strengths of the operation. In terms of the challenges, geographical issues should be mentioned. Many people in the area do not have access to their own boat to reach the facility which presents this challenge of delivering care. Another challenge that this primary care provider faces is locating those who cannot be identified on an online/everyday map. What they do to get around this barrier (literally and figuratively) is that they have a special map of the area which points out where small communities and harder to reach individuals. The map was customized and had different identification markers. Without the primary care area of the whole system, the aggregate functionality would simply decrease because it would be much harder  to visit somewhere on a regular basis for access to everyday over the counter medication such as ibuprofen, birth control, acetaminophen, etc. To add, there would be less mental health care access as it is offered at the primary centers. 

Afterwards, we went to get some lunch. Pretty much everyone had steak with fries. It was very good and very much needed. They also gave us a ridiculous amount of bread which I ate a lot of. After lunch we had free time to walk around the plaza and shopping areas. That’s all for now! See you soon!