Philips Community Life Center

The CLC  is an integrated modular solution that includes the following:

·  Solar PV system - for a reliable and clean energy supply

·  Indoor and outdoor LED-lighting - enabling extended operating hours and providing security to patients and staff

·  Medical devices - for improved patient monitoring, diagnosis and triage

·  Laboratory equipment – for a broad range of services

·  Refrigeration - for vaccines and medicines

·  IT solutions - for efficient operation of the clinic, connection with the community and the rest of the healthcare system

·  Water supply and purification - to prevent waterborne diseases

The CLC is a turn-key solution that can be configured to meet the needs of each facility, and includes staff training and community mobilization. Part of the offering is a long term (five years or more) comprehensive monitoring and support service provided by Philips and its collaborators to ensure sustainability and continuous improvement of health outcomes. This service includes, amongst other things, remote and on-site monitoring of equipment and healthcare processes, repair and maintenance, helpdesk support and regular refresher trainings for facility staff and community health workers.

Strengthening primary healthcare requires a comprehensive solution

Philips has been present in Africa for over 100 years, and during this time has gained a deep understanding of the main challenges facing primary healthcare. Issues range from unavailability of qualified healthcare workers to lack of electricity, water and basic healthcare technology. While many projects focus on tackling the issues one at a time, they often don’t deliver the expected result because the other issues are not being addressed. This was Philips’ starting point for developing the CLC solution – Philips aimed to bring significant and sustainable improvement by addressing all causes in one comprehensive solution.

For many years Philips has been advancing the healthcare agenda for Africa – providing solutions, innovations and collaborations, with a particular focus on Mother and Child Care. Philips provides the CLC with a broad range of patient monitoring, diagnosis and triage equipment to enable community health workers to identify high-risk pregnancies at an early stage and thereby, hopefully reducing the rate of infant and maternal mortality.

An example of a locally relevant innovation that empowers health workers in a community care setting is the Philips Wind-Up Fetal Doppler. Weighing less than 600 grams, the Philips Wind-up Fetal Doppler is fully portable, simple to operate, and measures fetal heart rates. The Philips Wind-Up Fetal Doppler has built-in batteries that provide up to 10 hours of use, and when no mains supply is available, cranking the wind-up handle for one minute provides power for up to 10 minutes of operation.