Adopt A Clinic

Welcome to our Adopt a Clinic initiative

Our concept enables individuals, families, corporations, Universities, Colleges, GP surgeries, hospitals in the USA to adopt and support rural health centers in Zambia and Mawali

Can you imagine travelling 100km to see a doctor about your diabetes? This can be a reality for some people in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Virtual Doctors have a solution to help patients be treated in their local area.

Using a custom built telemedicine app, the Virtual Doctors connects isolated healthcare workers with volunteer doctors for expert medical advice. With access to over 23 specialties, the healthcare workers can then draw on this support to provide excellent medical care to their patients in their local community, preventing unnecessary referrals to distant and hard to reach hospitals.

You can save lives

When adopting a clinic your support will enable the Virtual Doctors service to continue in your adopted Health Center in Zambia or Mawali. It’s a simple, yet effective idea. Your donation of $2,500 would fund the Virtual Doctors service in your adopted clinic for around a year* You will be helping save lives within a community.

Since its inception, the Virtual Doctors service has given expert medical advice to over 12000** patients. We know that the advice:

  • improved patient’s symptoms in 92% of cases
  • prevented 78% of unnecessary referrals allowing the patients to be treated and cared for in their community
  • 97% of the advice was deemed to be educational by the healthcare worker**

“Wow!! This is very educational advice, both practically and theoretically.
It will indeed improve my management skills for burns.” (Jonathan, healthcare worker)

*The funds you donate will be used first and foremost to support your adopted clinic. Any access funds will be used to support our mission.

** (case numbers as at October 2018)

***(Statistics Oct 2018 survey)

How the funds will be spent

$2,500 will contribute towards operating our service in an existing rural health clinic. This includes deployment of a Virtual Doctors enabled smartphone, mobile internet data, training, on-going training and technical support and access to over 200 volunteer doctors in the UK covering 23 different medical specialties. It also included access to our medical educational resources for healthcare worker CPD as well as monitoring & evaluation of the impact of the service in each health facility.

Your adopted clinic

Once you have chosen (we can also designate)  and supported your adopted clinic you will receive:

  • A photo of the Clinic and the health worker
  • Quarterly updates on the clinic and the number of people they have helped.
  • Special news emails

 

DONATE US

Want to help?

Step 1 – If you haven’t yet done so then get in touch with us and nominate your surgery today!

If we already know you want to be involved, then thank you for your interest.

Our admin team will assign a clinic to you for 1 year, with an aim to raise £1500. We will send you a fundraising pack to get you started, from here it is down to you and your team to raise the funds anyway youd like. We have some ideas below to help you.

Fundraising Pack Contents:

  • A3 posters

  • A5 flyers

  • Gift aid envelope box – Surprisingly effective but please keep them secure.

  • Cash collection pots – Surprisingly effective but please keep them secure

  • Information on the clinic you are twinned with

  • Spare signs, tissue paper and security seals

  • Instructions on money handling

  • A-Z ways to fundraise

Step 2 – brainstorm some ideas together with colleagues and make a plan. Then just go for it

To keep awareness high – why not consider adding a link to your newsletter, website or Facebook page.

You will probably want to come up with your own ideas but to help stimulate thought here are some suggestions:

Set up a fundraising online team page, A-Z of fundraising ideas – a wealth of ideas to get you creatively thinking (download pdf of A-Z for print), shout about what you are doing and put your clinic in the spotlight

Contact your local newspaper and local radio stations, they will love local interest stories. They may be prepared to run articles on your Clinic Twinning initiative which will help to raise awareness and sponsorship. The Twinning team can also provide press release templates or offer more ideas and information. Just fire off an email to us,  We’re here to help!

Our Twinning Team will also want to keep in touch with you, offering information and support for the duration of your initiative, and we will monitor your online page too.

Finally, when you reach your target we will want to say a BIG THANK YOU and help you celebrate. To show our appreciation and congratulate you we will send: –

  • Thank you letter from the Virtual Doctors

  • A framed A3 colour photo of your twinned clinic and healthcare worker

  • Optional Thank You cards for donors

  • Quotes and content for your newsletter or any local PR

We would also like to keep you informed in the future with updates about your twinned clinic and our general work, explaining how your efforts have helped to save lives. You could also opt to receive regular newsletters.

How the twinning funds will be spent

£1500 will contribute towards operating our service in a rural health clinic. This includes purchasing a smart phone and data, and training costs for the healthcare worker. Costs can be variable depending on location of the clinic and local economy/staff, but every penny will help.

Funds raised will help us support and set up new clinics in isolated areas of Zambia too, provide ongoing education for healthcare workers.

You’re now part of the Twinning Team… Happy Fundraising!