I have just received the delivery of the the first ten beds for Bwaila. They have been put into the new labour ward!
This dream will soon be a reality! congratulations and thanks to all!- Rachel
The new Bwaila maternity hospital funded by The Rose Project was handed over to the Minister of Health, Khumbo Kachali on Monday 29th June.
The official opening will take place in October so check back to our blog here to read more news.
Our newly appointed representative in Lilongwe-Rachel Mc Cleod is busy co-ordinating equipment installation and planning for the transfer of patients from the old hospital to the new one.
Rachel is an experienced midwife who is also carrying out extensive midwifery training and orientation programmes with the midwives. This has been particularly successful, to the extent that the matrons at the hospital have now taken over some of the training.
The installation of equipment has begun with the beds now in place in the labour ward. The particular labour ward is the first of its kind in East Africa, in that it provides a private room for all patients regardless of financial status. Given that this hospital caters for some of the poorest people in Malawi this is a wonderful development.
A serious effort has been made by The Rose Project to source as much of the equipment as possible from Malawi itself, some is coming from South Africa and the containers will arrive later this month.
The Rose Project’s Prevention of Mother to child HIV Transmission programme(PMTCT) in Lilongwe is progressing well.
Since 2006, 1,600 expectant women have been diagnosed HIV positive and placed on treatment to prevent transmission of the virus to their baby. This programme is being run by the Lighthouse, a HIV and AIDS clinic, built by the Rose Project in 2006.
Lighthouse Clinic is next door to the new maternity hospital and will work closely with the hospital. Given that 20 %( possibly more) of the women attending the maternity hospital are HIV positive, this collaboration is essential.
Whilst I was in Lilongwe, a meeting was organised by the chief district health officer Dr Ignacio Ndovie. At this meeting all stakeholders involved in the provision of PMTCT at Lighthouse clinic, the district and central hospitals were present.
All were most anxious to ensure that there was no duplication of services and where they were gaps in the existing services that these would be addressed.
One of the principal challenges lies in the area of follow-up. When a HIV positive mother gives birth to her baby in the maternity hospital, this baby needs to be tested at 6 months to ensure that the virus has not been transmitted to the infant(2% of women receiving the treatment go on to deliver HIV positive babies.In addition HIV positive women need to be followed up to ensure that they are adhereing to treatment
Staffing the new maternity hospital.
The principal challenge facing the provision of healthcare in Malawi is the shortage of midwives and doctors. There are only 260 doctors in Malawi for a population of 13 million people. In an effort to address the situation the ministry of helath introduced a new cadre of healthcare worker in the 1980’s-clinical officers.
Clinical officers carry out a three year training programme and one year internship. Those who carry out the general training programme are on completion, licensed to perform both hysterectomies and caesarean sections.
There is also a critical shortage of midwives.
As a result Malawi has the third highest infant and maternal mortality rate in the world. The 2008 figures from Bwaila district maternity hospital Lilongwe, show that there were 24 maternal and 228 infants deaths over that year. These are staggeringly high figures and for the most part are attributed to appalling working conditions and a critical shortage of healthcare workers.
On Monday last I met with the Director of Nursing at Kamuzu College of Nursing.
Following discussions with this university department, The Rose Project will fund a scholarship programme for five midwives.
In return the midwives will give 2 years to Bwaila Maternity Hospital. Hopefully we can encourage other partners to extend this programme.
Overall the trip this time was very successful-seeing the hospital finished with the equipment and furniture arriving, is creating a great excitement among the staff at the existing hospital where midwives are used to delivering infants in appalling conditions-at times on the stone floor, due to the lack of beds.
