Mary has just been in touch to let us know that the opening went very well this morning. Thanks to the generous donations of so many Irish people and the efforts of the Malawian people and with the gracious assistance today of the Vice president Joyce Banda and Dr. Mary Robinson, this new hospital will have a fantastic beneficial impact on the lives of so many Malawians.  To hear more about the opening, tune into Newstalk at 1.35 to hear Mary Donohoe, Founder of The Rose project, interviewed by Ger Gilroy.

Deirdre

The Rose project is delighted that the Vice -President of Malawi Hon. Joyce Banda will officailly open the Rose project-funded Wellness centre on Thursday 8th october. To find out more about the Wellness Centre, take a closer look at our website!

Deirdre

25th September 2009

I met with Dr. Dermot Mc Donald, an ex master of the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin. The resident obstetrician in Lilongwe, Dr. Meguid, has expressed a interest in senior obstetricians visiting the maternity hospital in Lilongwe, to carry out clinical teaching and mentoring programmes. This is the second obstetrician who has expressed an interest in assisting the new maternity hospital, the other being the current master of the Coombe, Dr. Chris Fitzpatrick. I will keep you posted as to progress.

Mary

15th September 2009

Rachel our representative in Lilongwe, along with Matron Ruth Mwale organised for all the senior nursing staff to visit Queen Elizabeth’s hospital in Blantyre, as this is the largest public maternity hospital in Malawi. A follow up workshop was carried out on return to Lilongwe and all found the experience of the full day on the wards in this teaching hospital a very useful experience with staff at both hospitals sharing their different experiences and expertise.

Sept 8th Lilongwe 2009

All is progressing well towards the opening of the new hospital with great excitement in the air I t is a real honour for the Rose Project to welcome former President of Ireland and UN High Comminissioner for Human Rights, to officially opening the hospital along with the Vice President of Malawi.  Dr Robinson  President of Realizing rights is championing the issue of maternal mortality

Whilst the building is ready the greatest challenge is the acute shortage of healthcare workers. The Rose Project along with a number of International partners including UNICEF is working to address the situation in particular the shortage of doctors and nurses. With the generous support of UNICEF we have employed a full time very experienced midwife Rachel Macleod, to work alongside her Malawian counterparts. Rachel’s made aim is to assist the senior nursing staff at the hospital, with up schilling of midwives and overseeing the smooth transition from old to  new maternity hospitals.

In addition the Royal college of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG UK) is assisting The Rose Project to source medical staff from outside the country as a temporary measure,  with 12,000 annual births at the hospital  and only one full time resident obstetrician, all the assistance possible is needed. The good news is that the Malawian government is funding the College of Medicine to train more doctors however it will be a long time before there is a sufficient number. In addition it will be vital to ensure that the working conditions for these individuals is attractive otherwise when training is complete they will leave the country. There is an additional cadre of healthcare worker in Malawi, which does not exist n Europe. Clinical Officers carry out a four year training programme at the college of Health Sciences and deliver the bulk of medical care. These are very competent, though under acknowledged within the healthcare system. The Rose Project along with a number of national and international organisations  looking at ways to address this situation

Sept 9th 2009

A number of Irish donors including Denis O Brien visited the new hospital. They also visited the HIV clinic which is beside the new hospital. This clinic was funded by the Rose Project in 2006.The focus of care at the clinic is on Prevention of Mother to Child HIV transmission during pregnancy. Since the clinic opened 6,000 people have been placed on AIDS This clinic will work closely with the new maternity hospital in the area of mother to child HIV transmission

Sept 10th 2009

The meeting with the District medical Officer was focused on the need for the District to rise to the challenges the new hospital is presenting. This is very difficult due to the shortage of personnel. In a hugely under resoursed healthcare system, a new hospital is bound to present many difficulties, however Dr Ndovie is one of the most enthusiastic people I have worked with and so we are   fortunate. In the afternoon I visited the ministry of health and spoke with the chief district nursing officer who assured me that midwives finishing their training in both September and December will be joining the existing midwives at the new hospital. A total of 8 midwives will be allocated to the hospital but we need 40. To address the shortage the Rose Project is funding the sponsorship of additional nurses to train in midwifery at the university of Malawi. This programme will commence in December and will bring an additional 16 midwives to the force. Hopefully within the next two years the administration of the hospital will in a position to have a  three shift rota in place, each  shift for 8 hours. Presently there are only enough nurses to work a two shift rota, this leads to total exhaustion among the staff and  inevitable mistakes.

10th September 2009

Today, we organised a Chinese meal for all the senior nursing staff and it went off very well. Due to the staff shortages, we had the meal in the library next to the hospital rather in the Chinese restaurant.  It went very well and it was agreed by all to have been a good team building exercise .

11th Sept 2009

I visited the visited the College of Nursing.

The Rose Project is working with the department of nursing (Kamuzu College of Nursing) at the University of Malawi, on a midwife sponsorship programme.  We will fund extra midwives to be trained and in return the midwives will commit two years to the maternity hospital. This sponsorship programme will commence at the university in December 09 and the first group of midwives will join the staff at the maternity hospital, in December 2010

Sept 12th 2009

This morning I visited the  new Wellness Centre which is complete and the staff are fully installed. This is a new healthcare centre which the Rose Project has funded; it will be operated by The Malawian Association of Nurses and Midwives  with additional funding from the Norwegian Nurses Association. Healthcare workers in Malawi are severely overstretched and require support at many levels. The HIV pandemic has seriously overstretched an already challenged healthcare service. Many of the nurses  and midwives work 16 hour shifts due to the shortage of personnel. In addition many healthcare workers have become infected  through injuries in the work place such as needle stick.

In addition to providing holistic healthcare to the healthcare workers, this centre will also provide care to their families. The concept of a Wellness Centre is the brain child of the Swaziland Nurses Association where it has been in operation for five years and has proven to be most successful. Lesotho and Zambia followed suit and both these countries are experiencing a positive impact on the health force.

Sept 13th 2009

Finally this morning I finalised plans for the opening of the maternity hospital with Rachel our representative in Malawi, and ensured that all the invites had been delivered.

Mary

The Rose Project is delighted to announce that Dr. Mary Robinson will be officially opening the new maternity Hospital at Bwaila, Malawi on 7th October 2009.  We are very grateful for Dr. Robinson’s continued support for The Rose Project.

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.

Eamonn, a long-time supporter of The Rose Projects’s work placed a substantial bet on Leinster on the morning of the match and thanks to a wonderful performance by Leinster, Eamonn is handing The Rose Project his winnings - a staggering E2.000!!!  We thank him for his sincere generosity.  Eamonn travelled to Malawi in 2007 to record a documentary for The Rose Project.  Take a look at our website stories…

To all our mini-marathoners!!
There is less than a week to go to the Flora Women’s mini-marathon and by this time next Monday, we will be stretching and warming up at the start-line! So, if you need a sponsorship card for some last minute fundraising, please don’t hesitate to contact Bernadette in the office on 01-4969131.
Best of luck….on your marks!….