Sik is not some old small town.
The district which is as big Perlis state hosts a waterfall, a hot spring and the jewel known Pedu Lake was not difficult to get to. After a few wrong turns, we were there which the last three were discovered (at least for some of us).
It is not just a quaint little tourist district either.
Home to the only WHO Visual Inspection of Acetic Acid for Cervical Cancer Screening Programme in our country; we did not anticipate the bastion of health services.
The misty landscape peppered with small plantations and houses is actually home to an excellent district health service. We first saw KK Jerniang not realizing that it is actually the national award winning Healthy Setting Clinic. It is a clinic in a fruit orchard, need we say more? The charming, quiet environment also fooled us off the many KK Desa’s which were hidden in the greens.
After the last wrong turn to Sik Hospital, we finally arrived at the District Health Office.
Time: 9.02am
Venue: Meeting room, DHO Sik
Person in-charge: Dr. Ishak Bin Husain (out on an emergency)
Agenda: Introduction on Sik District Health Office
After trying to feed us with a hearty breakfast which we were too polite to accept, she gave us our schedule. Eyebrows shot up as they really planned a lot for us.
Once the pleasantries were over, she gave us a brief introduction on Sik District.
The 411 on Sik District:
Total area: 1634.6 km²
Consisting 4 Mukims (In English, Habitation)
· Mukim Sik (57,042.38 hectare)
· Mukim Teloi (13,175.27 hectare)
· Mukim Jeneri (12,691.00 hectare)
· Mukim Sok (80,549.00 hectare)
Total population: Approximately 81,000
Then to our business: Health Services.
We were told that there is one Maternal and Child Health Clinic which is in Mukim Sik and 2 Klinik Kesihatans: KK Gulau and the all-famous KK Jerniang. The MCH clinic does not have outpatient services however provides antenatal care, perinatal health, child health, family planning, healthy women clinic, home visits (after delivery and defaulter tracing) and home delivery (by a trained midwife).
However home deliveries went out of vogue in recent years as there were only 8 home deliveries in 2010. We did manage to get a lot of data on MCH services though as I type this we are still converting them to information.
Then the Matron passed the baton to Sister Zainab where we got down and dirty with the School Health Programme activity for the day: HPV Immunization.
Keep reading.
Dineash Kumar and Ravivarma Rao
