Improving access to primary healthcare is a key challenge across Africa. Philips Community Life Centers provide vital primary care but also go beyond that, turning health facilities into community hubs where technology is bundled with additional service offerings. For example, local people can buy clean water and sustainable products from them, such as home solar lighting. Philips Community Life Centers are also designed to offer people a safe environment, using solar-powered LED outdoor lighting to illuminate the area at night, improving security and extending daylight hours.
Philips CLC platforms can be created as new stand-alone facilities or be implemented in existing facilities. The flexibility and modularity of the platform allows it to be tailored to the local healthcare requirements, in terms of the service package offered, the volume of patients and local needs and circumstances.
Philips has been developing and modifying the CLC platform since 2014, when it opened its first site in Kiambu County, Kenya. The second CLC was inaugurated in Tadu village in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2016.
Within eighteen months of its opening (from June 2014 – December 2015), the Kiambu County CLC saw:
- the total number of outpatients visiting per month increase from 900 to 4080
- the number of children being treated quadrupling from 533 to 2370
- first antenatal care patient numbers growing fifteen-fold from 13 to 188 patients each month, with the number of fourth visit antenatal care patients each month growing sixteen-fold, from 6 to 94
The maternity wing of the center enables women to give birth in a safe and secure environment. Since its inception, 634 babies have been born in the unit – an average of 36 babies per month.