Stronger health through Irish & Kenyan partnership

Thank you for supporting this project and the partnership between Mayo University Hospital and Londiani Sub-County Hospital.  Every day your donations are helping to create stronger health systems and healthier communities across Kericho County.

The team at Londiani Sub-County Hospital have been through a very traumatic time recently as they were the closest health facility in response to a very tragic road accident at Londiani junction on June 30^th.  52 people lost their lives, many were injured and hundreds of family members left without a bread winner.

The entire hospital team were involved in the response.  They looked after many of the injured in the immediate hours following the accident.  The bodies of 49 of the deceased were brought to the morgue at the hospital.  The team supported the families of the bereaved throughout the identification process.  We launched an emergency appeal to help with supplies of PPE, hand washing soap & sanitisers, disinfectants, body suits, food and water for staff and families of the bereaved and resources for a mobile blood bank unit to replenish blood bank supplies.  The team have asked us to convey their gratitude to everyone who supported them through the most traumatic of times the hospital has experienced.

Looking ahead, this project will help support the hospital team with trauma skills training and essential trauma care equipment. In the long term, the hospital needs a casualty department because the sad reality is that as road networks improve the number of accidents are increasing.  Meanwhile, day by day the hospital team get on with the tasks at hand and looking after a community in mourning.

Some good news is that we are very excited to be welcoming volunteers from Ireland to spend time with the staff and community in Kenya this October.  Several of the volunteers are attached to Mayo University Hospital through radiology, orthopaedic surgery, nurse education and pharmacy.  They will be sharing their skills and expertise along with supporting the Remote Emergency Care courses for Community Health Volunteers. This is a great opportunity to further develop the hospitals link and build relationships.

To coincide with the newly refurbished New Born Unit at the hospital, trainings for the staff have taken place to increase their skills and knowledge in emergency triage assessment and treatment of children and new-borns.  The New Born Unit will means that babies can be treated at the hospital in Londiani instead of being referred to Kericho County Referral Hospital which is approximately 50km distance.  Referrals are often challenging for families due to costs and access, so the presence of the New Born Unit, together with trained staff in Londiani will contribute to the survival of more babies, and better long term outcomes.

Delivery of vaccination fridges and vaccine cooler boxes has been taking place at various health facilities and clinics.  This equipment  is a vital part of the process of storage and delivery for COVID-19 vaccines and childhood vaccination programme in remote areas. Children receive the BCG, polio, measles and rubella vaccines and from age 10 girls are given the HPV vaccine.  Health care workers have also received training in Cold Chain Management to enable them to provide effective immunisation services to the community.

Thank you so much for your support.

Thank you so much for your support of this project bringing Mayo University Hospital and Londiani Sub-County Hospital together creating stronger health systems.  The partnership is focusing on improvement in trauma care, non-communicable diseases management and perinatal mortality.  This is helping to create healthier communities and stronger health systems across Kericho County.

The origins of the partnership are about ensuring better outcomes for mother and child health.  Access to maternal health services is difficult in this remote area due to poor infrastructure, difficult terrain and low levels of education and awareness.  The health facilities are under resourced and it is a struggle to provide the care needed.

This means that in Kericho county the perinatal mortality rate is 38 per 1,000 which means that 1 in every 26 infants die in birth or within their first 7 days of life (in Ireland that figure is 1 in 156).  The maternal mortality rate is also high – 362 women die in childbirth per 100,000 live births (in Ireland that figure is zero per 100,000).

Your support of this project is helping to change this. We provide residential courses in Essential Obstetrics and NeoNatal Care (EONC) for health care professionals and ‘train the trainer’ courses for individuals who will run one day workshops.   These workshops provide training and mentorship for health care workers and they take place in the facilities where they work.  They are hugely beneficial in strengthening skills in obstetric and new-born care and building capacity and confidence in their roles.

There have been several of these workshops held during March. The skills reviewed at each one include – maternal resuscitation, new-born resuscitation, breach delivery and dealing with miscarriages. Childbirth simulator equipment allows for very informative simulation, demonstrations and practical application of different procedures.

The staff appreciate the opportunity to assess and improve upon their skills.