The Community Health Centre of Cité La Cure needs to be restored. All stakeholders agree on that need but the shape of the new centre has not been decided yet. ?The number of people coming to our centre keeps increasing everyday but the centre has not been extended. When it was set up in 1987, it may have been a real jewel but it is no longer the case and we have kept asking for its extension? in vain,? says Jean-Noël Clair, president of the Forces Vives of Cité-La-Cure. The chairman of the Regional Health Advisory Board, Raffique Sautally, explains. ?The ministry is perfectly aware of the problems people are having at Dr Malher Community Health Centre and is currently taking necessary steps to bring appropriate changes.?

While the local residents are asking for an area health centre, the ministry of Health can only commit for a bigger centre with extended services for the moment. ?I have personally been to Cité-La-Cure today and met the people. I explained to them that the plan was ready and funds already identified. We?ve sent it to the Central Tender Board and are now waiting for its approval before inviting the tenders. I actually gave them the guarantee that we were doing our utmost to satisfy their needs,? revealed Dr Abdool, the regional Health Director at Jeetoo Hospital.

The main problem is that the inhabitants no longer believe in the promises made by the authorities ?because so many people have come to see us with no consequence so far,? said one of the inhabitants present. Promises go back to 2004 but nothing, they say, has been done so far. The centre still opens at irregular hours, does not offer all the services the people need and, above all, it can no longer cope with the increasingly high number of patients coming for treatment. Hence, fed up of waiting for the authorities? green light, they organised a sit-in in front of the CHC yesterday?

In fact, the main difference between a CHC and an Area Health Centre (AHC) ? which Cité-La-Cure residents are asking for ? is the regularity of services offered. There are between four and five AHCs for each of the five regions of the country. Each has a full-time community doctor and the hundred or so CHCs are attached to an AHC.

?Unlike the Community Health Centres, the Area Health Centres offer to patients more specialised treatment such as dental service. Other specialists like gynaecologists and paediatricians provide treatment to these centres at least once a week?

?The main difference is that the AHCs are open everyday until 6 p.m and on Sunday mornings,? states Dr Abdool. This is very convenient for working people who no longer need to take a whole day off to get treatment in their centres. When Satish Faugoo took up office, he extended the opening hours for all centres until 6 p.m.

Unlike the CHCs, the AHCs offer to patients more specialised treatment such as dental service. Other specialists like gynaecologists and paediatricians provide treatment to these centres at least once a week.

The determination of Cité-La-Cure residents to obtain their own AHC shows how these centres are a great advantage to citizens. Thanks to the services they offer, people no longer need to go to hospitals and wait long hours to obtain treatment.

This is one of the reasons why such centres (community and area) were set up; the idea was to reduce the number of out-patients going to hospitals for treatment that could be given in a place closer to their homes.

But, at Cité-la-Cure, the CHC no longer seems enough for the growing population of the area. Though the ministry finds their request acceptable and is about to give the green light for the expansion of their centre, it is not sure yet whether it is able to fulfil it. ?Implementing an AHC in a region depends on numerous factors like the number of people living around. We have to study the demand but there is at least one certainty: Cité-La-Cure will be granted a bigger centre with more facilities and we will review the opening hours,? commented the Health Regional director. ?And, most probably, they could get their dental service and some specialists coming there as well.?