No CT scanner? No X-ray room? No problem.

A table-top mini X-ray machine for veterinary use on animals has been adapted to take images of small human fractures and to locate shrapnel in victims hit by ammunition. Donated portable ultrasound machines also are key tools for diagnostics and procedures.

Welcome to the Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), a community-based organization that has served the migrant community and displaced populations for more than 30 years in Mae Sot District, along the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Key among its contributions are its advocacy work for vulnerable and displaced persons, as well as healthcare services, having provided more than 100,000 consultations in 2023, more than twice that in 2021 since the political coup, as the number of displaced persons grew. The clinic is only staffed with 10 doctors, mostly from Myanmar. It relies heavily on medics and nursing aides, most of whom have not gone through formal medical training and certification.

The clinic provides and facilitates life-saving procedures, active surveillance of communicable diseases, and helps ensure adequate nutritional needs and food safety for its patients. In early 2023, MTC identified the need for an Emergency Care Unit (ECU), to support their 200-bedded inpatient departments and five-discipline outpatient department.

Read more about how several clinicians from Singapore have been helping the MTC in their efforts to improve border health in this SMA News piece.