Maternal Health: Sierra Leone partners Johns Hopkins University

By Kemo Cham

[First published on www.politicosl.com] A partnership between Sierra Leone’s largest maternity hospital, the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH), and the Johns Hopkins University will help to tackle the dire state of maternal morbidity and mortality in the country, health officials disclosed last week.

The partnership is aimed at strengthening Sierra Leone’s health system and build human capacity in women’s reproductive health, they said.

The hospital said a six-man delegation, comprising doctors and nurses, was in the country as part of an assessment tour.

Sierra Leone is battling an ‘epidemic’ of maternal deaths which recently prompted the government to declare it a state of Public Health Emergency.

The Johns Hopkins University is an American private research institution which is categorized as one of the leading research facilities in sciences globally. It has an affiliate teaching hospital called the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. All of these are located in the US with branches in a number of countries in Europe.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest hospitals.

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, through its Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, is already collaborating with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone through the ‘Safe Anesthesia & Surgery in Sierra Leone Initiative’ (SASSL).

The SASSL initiative conducts researches on the possibility of deploying new anesthesia machines like the Universal Anesthetics Machine (UAM) which are designed for environments where compressed gases are not consistently available and measure the impact that these machines will have on the safety and capacity of surgery in these countries. It also includes donation of thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment relevant to the department.

This latest partnership with the US institution was initiated by the Medical Superintendent of the PCMH, Dr Alimamy Koroma, who said that besides lack of equipment, shortage of expertise was a major hindrance to tackling reproductive health issues. He said the partnership provided for the training of local staff, notably in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology, so that they can take over in the long term.

A shrinking number of healthcare providers meant that the level of service delivery of basic and comprehensive obstetric care has been inadequate, said Dr Koroma, revealing that at the moment there were only five trained obstetricians and gynecologists in the whole country, with only two in active duty.

The partnership specifically entails the development of a sustainable post-graduate residency training programme in Obstetrics and Gynecology to build a cadre of tertiary healthcare professionals in women’s reproductive health, Koroma was quoted saying in the local media. He explained that it would seek to improve education on women’s health at the pre-service level for nurses and midwives, focusing on cost effective and evidence-based intervention to reduce maternal and new born mortality.

The US delegation which was supposed to have departed Freetown over the week end was scheduled to tour other health facilities across the country during their week-long stay in the country.

(C) Politico 13/04/16