CheckUps Medical

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought primary care in Sub-Saharan Africa to its knees. Public settings are shut, lack supplies, or an ill-equipped to handle cases because of lack of testing capacity. With the massive loss of jobs, affordability is a major concern, especially for vulnerable people with chronic illnesses. The elderly can’t afford medicines. Pregnant women have few options for where to get antenatal care. School-based care is all but none existent as nursing bays are closed. Despite the hype of telemedicine, large swats of urban populations do not know how, where, and when to reach a Doctor. As governments struggle to respond to public health needs, the urgency for affordable quality health care can’t be overstated.

CheckUps has responded to these challenges by innovating our service delivery model by offer patients access to care at home. We recruit freelance motorbike riders and nurses. Train and equip them with an essential kit. Each team visits 60 homes a day. They target the elderly with chronic disease, pregnant women, and children riding in densely populated estates. At the first visit, the team documents their vitals and medical history. Once a medical need is identified they connect the patient to our team of doctors who do a tel consult and prescribe. The riders pick up the meds and deliver and the patients pay.

Since we launched in April, our team has visited over 40000 homes. Over 1200 persons treated. Our medicines are sold at 20% below average retail prices. Those needing labs either come to one of our clinics or samples are collected at home. We also test for COVID-19.

Impact: patients save thus making care affordable. Patients are monitored for compliance to treatment better than they ever had, thus ensuring quality care for all. Vulnerable homes are introduced to telemedicine making access equitable for all.

Goal: we plan to screen 100,000 homes by March 2021. Generate over 30000 teleconsultations which means lots of health education and 10000 prescriptions. This will help our patients save approximately $50,000 on prescription medications. We expect to conduct over 1000 home antenatal visits. We will create over 50 jobs for riders and nurses who will be trained in home-based care.

We will expand the program to other parts of Kenya and South Sudan in Q2-2021.