Rural doctors in Georgia improve management of COVID-19 cases

With the support of USAID and UNICEF, the village health clinics were equipped with Internet access, and all rural health clinics in Georgia now have an Internet connection. All village doctors in Georgia have access to the latest professional information through a common online information platform. The platform is based at the Emergency Coordination and Emergency Assistance Center of Georgia. In partnership with Czech Caritas, all rural doctors have been trained in the management of suspected or diagnosed COVID-19 cases.

UNICEF/GEO-2021/Turabelidze

Louisa Samsonia, Geguti village doctor

“I have spent most of my life - 58 years - caring for my patients. Since graduating from the medical faculty, I have served as the chief doctor of Geguti polyclinic for years, now I work as a village doctor. A village doctor is like a family member, I am close to everyone, I know everyone's story, everyone’s troubles.

I always try to learn something new. I am 84 years old but I still have the ability and interest to acquire new knowledge. Now they gave me a computer and connected me to the doctors' platform. To tell you the truth - I was very far from computers, I neither needed nor knew how to use them. I had a hard time assimilating and didn’t believe I could become proficient, but now I am very happy with it. Whatever I need – how to subscribe medicines electronically, log in to trainings, upload reports – I learned it all. I log into the village doctor platform, see what lectures are planned for what time, mark it, and then attend the one I need. We have already attended ten lectures - on early childhood development, breastfeeding, managing COVID-19. If these lectures were not available online, I probably would not have been able to attend all of them. Now I can listen to these trainings directly from home and learn what is new.

I serve the people of Geguti, I love them and would like to continue to care for them as long as I can.”

UNICEF/GEO-2020/Turabelidze

Amiran Mushkudiani, Geguti village doctor

„A few months ago, they connected us to the Internet, brought us computers and since then we actively started learning the new medical platform.

Through this platform a lot of things got simpler - prescribing medicines, entering immunization data, compiling reports, attending online trainings. The trainings give us a lot of experience, new information is provided to us literally up to the minute. These trainings are conducted by prominent doctors. These online meetings bring together rural doctors from all over the district and we exchange information with each other, who needs what, who can provide support.

Getting familiar with changes is always difficult and it may sometimes seem like doing things the old-fashioned way, the way they were always done, is better. But if you have a little more curiosity, more interest, you will suddenly pick up the new ways and realize that with the new knowledge the whole process becomes much more efficient and fast. Now we have everything available to us at home or in our offices, what’s not to like? This platform has become my right hand.”

UNICEF

Lasha Tevzadze, a family doctor of the village Galavani

Meet Lasha Tevzadze, a family doctor of the village Galavani. The health clinic of the village Galavani in Mtskheta district serves 12 villages. "I have been working here since 1997 as a family doctor. We, rural doctors are like a family member - we know everyone, we know their problems. Otherwise this relationship does not work. We fully justify our name - we are truly family doctors as we are raising whole generations,” says Lasha Tevzadze. Until December 2020, the health clinic in the village of Galavani did not have the Internet connection. Doctors themselves bought mobile internet to contact their patients.

According to Dr. Tevzadze, the Internet helps their work significantly: “Nowadays everything is electronic - the databases, the latest information on immunizations and other planned activities. New information on COVID-19 prevention and management is also shared via the Internet, ”says Dr. Tevzadze.

With the support of the USAID and UNICEF, the Galavni Village health clinic has just been equipped with the Internet access, and soon all rural health clinics in Georgia will have the Internet connection. Also, all village doctors in Georgia will have access to the latest professional information through a common online information platform. The platform is based at the Emergency Coordination and Emergency Assistance Center of Georgia.