Archived News
May 5th 2017 is International Day of the Midwife.
Click here for a published statement by MCAI concerning the task-sharing programme in advanced obstetrics including abdominal surgery by midwives in Liberia.
MCAI's task-sharing work in Liberia
1. Obstetric Clinicians For the last 4 years, MCAI has been undertaking a programme training senior midwives to undertake advanced obstetric care, including abdominal surgery such as Caesarean section: click here to read more details
2. Advanced neonatal hospital care practitioners. This programme started in April 2017 with 4 trainees at CB Dunbar Hospital with apprenticeship based training undertaken by a succession of international trainers. click here for more details
This approach (termed task sharing) is being undertaken in Liberia by a partnership between The Ministry of Health, The World Health Organisation, United Nations Population Fund and MCAI, since it has hardly any doctors (1 for every 71,000 people) within a population of 4.3 million people; the lowest doctor/patient ratio in the world. In the UK the ratio is 1 doctor for 356 persons.
EBOLA IN LIBERIA
Addressing the needs of hospitals to ensure maternal and child healthcare during the devastating Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia
Women with complications of pregnancy, newborn infants and children with life-threatening illnesses now have extremely limited access to medical care in the public hospitals of Liberia. The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa has resulted in the closure of almost all public hospitals because so many health workers have been afraid to come to work following a number of deaths in nurses and doctors. More patients in Liberia are now dying from serious treatable conditions such as malaria and complications of pregnancy and delivery than from Ebola. In Bong County the hospitals have continued to provide emergency care for pregnant women and children throughout and are now becoming fully functional. It is essential that doctors, nurses and midwives have high quality adequate barrier nursing materials to protect them from infection and MCAI, with the help of the British Ambassador in Liberia, has provided a large supply of these vital materials including gowns, aprons, gloves, rain boots, masks etc.
Advocacy for Ebola Treatment
David Southall & Rhona MacDonald: More resources are urgently needed to treat Ebola in West Africa
Click here to read the BMJ blog
Letter to HIFA2015 - Healthcare Information For All by 2015 on 'Ebola Doctors Are Divided on IV Therapy in Africa' 4 January 2015 - click here for the full text
How to undertake intra-osseus fluid rescusitation for patients with Ebola - click here for an extract from our textbook on the Hospital care of pregnant women and children in low resource settings
Ebola outbreak: Fresh call for NATO to lead the fight against virus 3.11.14
Click here to read article in The Independent
NATO Watch News Brief: Calls for NATO to assist in Ebola outbreak grow louder - Click to read 31.10.14
European Leaders call for NATO to establish hospital care for Ebola patients in West Africa that meets international standards and includes hospital ships
A group of 40 senior European political, diplomatic and military figures called on Wednesday 29th October 2014 for the NATO military
alliance to deploy staff, ships and aircraft to help fight Ebola in West Africa.
Signatories including two former NATO secretary-generals and three ex-prime ministers said in two open letters that the WHO and United Nations should ask for help from NATO, whose "unique capabilities ... could make a difference in this situation."
The letters to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan were drafted by the European Leadership Network think tank in London.
Here is the Call from the European Leadership Network:
http://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/european-leaders-call-for-nato-action-on-ebola_2069.html
And the specific letter to the NATO Sec General:
Finally the letter to UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director General Margaret Chan: http://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/open-letter-to-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-and-who-director-general-margaret-chan_2068.html
Click here to read transcript of BBC interview 8.10.14
Click here to read NATO Watch comment 10.10.14
.... and here for a link to the BMJ article
The BMJ Ebola Virus page including our letter
NATO Watch comment: Where are the hospital ships? 17.10.14
Why medical ships could be a way forward 15.10.14
HIFA posting by Dr Rhona MacDonald
BBC Radio Wales Interview 25.10.14 Professor David Southall - Press Play to hear interview
On 13th December two MCAI volunteer Senior Consultant Obstetricians departed for Liberia – one from the UK and one from The Netherlands. Over the next six weeks, they will continue the training of selected midwives in advanced obstetrics, including surgery, to improve maternal and neonatal care at Phebe and C B Dunbar Hospitals in Bong County, rural Liberia.
MCAI would like to thank them both for so generously giving up their Christmas holidays - and more - to improve the lives of pregnant women and girls and their babies in Liberia.
Child Maltreatment & Abuse: Special Issue of Paediatrics and International Child Health
Click here for press release
Guest editorial written by MCAI Honorary Medical Director, David Southall and Honorary Executive Director, Rhona MacDonald.
Click here for editorial.
On 4 November 2013, Dr MacDonald gave a presentation to the International Child Health Group meeting of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Newly refurbished maternity unit at Essau now urgently needs equipment and supplies.
Refurbishment of Maternity Unit at Essau
Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Soroptimists International of Great Britain & Ireland (SIGBI), the refurbishment of the Maternity Unit at Essau Hospital is complete.
On his return from the Gambia, David Southall will submit his report detailing the equipment and supplies necessary for the unit to offer life-saving treatment to pregnant women, babies and children. children
Read more about our work in The Gambia....
SIGBI Day of Action – 20 July 2013
The BIG Project (Birthing in the Gambia)Soroptimists all over the country are co-ordinating a massive fundraising effort. From a production of Kiss Me Kate in Nottingham to Afternoon Tea and Cup Cake Competition in Kingston-Upon-Thames. And in between, there are Garden Parties, Fetes, Coffee Mornings, Lunches and Markets.
Find an event near you and pop along to support a project which is changing the lives of women and girls in The Gambia. Click here for more details
Volunteer Dr Brigid Hayden teaching on one of the EESS-EMNH courses at Phebe hospital, Liberia.
Update - Third education session in Liberia
June saw the third education session at Phebe hospital. 12 midwives received two days training in the care of critically ill newborn infants. The EMNH- EESS (Emergency Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare and Essential and Emergency Surgical Skills) course had a total of 50 candidates. All candidates received a pocketbook, logbook and a bag with two masks for resuscitation of the newborn infant.