The concept of a mobile clinic that navigates between villages separated by bodies of water came not as a vision but as a necessity.  Its founder, Dr. German Agravante, on his internship prior to his completion of his Doctor of Medicine degree, was assigned at the biggest public hospital catering to the needs of patients coming from six provinces and seven cities in the Bicol Region.  The sheer volume of patients, in contrast to the number of medical personnel and available supplies and facilities of the center, translates to a service delivery dilemma facing overstretched yet underbudgeted medical institutions. 

 

His exposures to various cases presented in the emergency rooms and open wards at this hospital pointed to a major conundrum:  why are most patients brought to the hospital come in as a last resort rather than preventive in purpose? 

 

The prime reason:  most of the areas where these patients came from are found in islands where medical help is unheard of and only faith healers abound to fill in the vacuum.  Their afflictions usually started as benign, easily curable conditions that have been made worse by neglect and the true reality of poverty.  Some islands, in fact, necessitate a few boat rides to get to the nearest local health facility. 

 

This leads to this lingering thought: “What if these patients get to see a doctor regularly in their local communities and get diagnosed early;  would they still be here fighting off complications and scrounging on the limited resources the hospital could offer?” 

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Armed with a firm resolve to engender change, Dr. Agravante, in 2017,  purchased a second hand eight-meter outrigger boat, powered by a 15-horsepower diesel engine, large enough to carry up to 10 volunteers and three boxes of assorted medicines donated by physician-friends and, in part, bought by him personally.  His team consists of colleagues and friends who also want to devote their free day away from their busy city schedule to take up the challenge in making a difference in the lives of impoverished island dwellers.

 

Still at its infancy, The Floating Clinic holds on to its vision of reaching out to more island villages by hopefully building a bigger and better floating medical facility that can deliver comprehensive medical services to communities made invisible and forgotten by their remote locations.