This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Scots healthcare expertise for Malawi
24/05/2006
Scottish doctors, nurses and midwives, backed by cash from the Scottish government, are heading to Malawi to help in the fight against disease.
Thirteen volunteers have been awarded up to £5,000 each from a special Humanitarian Health Fund to cover travel, accommodation and costs to deliver medical training and services in Malawi.
Last November First Minister Jack McConnell and President wa Mutharika signed a co-operation agreement which set out the areas in which Malawi and Scotland could work to help strengthen Malawi's young democracy and fight poverty and disease.
In Malawi Patricia Ferguson, Minister with responsibility for International Development said:
"The Scottish government's focus in Malawi is about sharing common experience, working together to tackle problems and helping build a better future for Malawi.
"With this funding our healthcare volunteers can help ordinary Malawians, sharing their expertise in order to deliver an improved health service in the country."
The Humanitarian Health Fund of £50,000 per year for three years was launched in November 2005. Grants of up to £5,000 are available to health professionals, working or resident in Scotland, for work that is based in Sub-Saharan Africa and areas affected by the Asian Tsunami and the Asian Quake.
The fund is drawn from the Executive's international development budget of £3 million a year. Eleven awards were also announced today for groups of health care workers for work in Ethiopia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The latest volunteers are:
Dr Gordon Macpherson from Stirling will deliver specific teaching to teachers and teacher trainers around food nutrition and health. Gordon is an obstetrician with a particular concern around girls' health and impact on malnutrition on maternal mortality. He will be travelling to Malawi in June.
Carol Morris, Senior Information Analyst NHS Lothian, will assist in the design and implement a management information system at the College of Medicine in Blantyre and the College of Health Sciences in Lilongwe with satellite campuses in Blantyre and in Zomba. She will run one-to-one training to ensure the correct use is made of the information. Carol plans to work in Malawi during this summer.
Dr David Beattie from Newton Stewart and Dr Paul Carnaghan from Stranraer will train rural hospital staff on recognising signs of acute respiratory disease in children, on emergency treatment procedures and evidenced based practice. They will be in Malawi in October.
Professor David Weller and Dr John Gillies, Selkirk, Professor Scott Murray, Edinburgh and Dr Angus Grant, Edinburgh will work on a project with the Ministry of Health and the College of Medicine to deliver a series of three 10 day on site clinical work modules on palliative care key issues, and to develop the planning for community practitioners practising family medicine.
Dr David Pitts, Professional Development Centre, Edinburgh, Dr Ian Ritchie and Dr Christine Evans, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh will design and deliver a Training trainers course for Malawi surgeons. The programme will introduce new educational tools and link Malawian surgeons to Higher Surgical Training in UK - while ensuring residency in country. The team will go to Malawi in September.
Linda McDonald, Edinburgh Midwife, will continue her work to progress plans to build a hospital in Malawi and will also work with colleagues in Bottom Hospital, Lilongwe to gain insight and experience of breast feeding support systems in use in Malawi which can be brought back to Scotland.
Prof David Dewhurst, Edinburgh University. The Ministry of Health in Malawi has requested support from the University of Edinburgh and NES to develop the capacity of all the health training Colleges to negotiate and deliver independent learning. Edinburgh University have particular skills in elearning having just won the prestigious Queens award for their Virtual hospital. Prof Dewhurst will work with staff in the medical and nursing training Colleges to develop expert interactive teaching materials in Malawi. This is intended to capture the expert knowledge of Malawian health professionals and is cascaded down to every health facility.