(l to r) Gavin Ackers-Johnson, Steven Mwesige, Professor Louise Ackers adn her daughter Simona, Joseph Kiggundu, Dr Carol Porter and Joseph Ddumba
A joint project between the University and a hospital in Uganda has received further funding to open a High Dependency Unit.
The Liverpool-Mulago Partnership (LMP), a partnership linking Liverpool Women’s Hospital (LWH) with Mulago Hospital in Uganda, was awarded project funding from the International Health Links Funding Scheme (IHLFS) to support the development of a High Dependency Unit (HDU) in Uganda.
The LMP is jointly directed by Dr Andrew Weeks, Senior Lecturer in Reproductive and Developmental Medicine and Consultant Obstetrician at the LWH and Dr Josaphat Byamugisha from Mulago hospital.
The original idea for the application came from Dr Mark Muyingo, a Ugandan consultant, who visited LWH last year. His report identified the need for a high dependency unit at Mulago. The Liverpool hospital has extensive experience of running a high dependency care unit in obstetrics and has developed the Modified Early Obstetrics Warning System (MEOWS) which is now used nationally.
The new High Dependency Unit opened in October and plays a pivotal role in improving the diagnosis and management of high risk obstetric care. Dr Paul Westhead of Liverpool Women’s Hospital will be based in Mulago for a year to support the work at the facility.
In order to ensure comprehensive evaluation of this initiative, Professor Louise Ackers, Dr Carol Julia Porter from the Liverpool Law School and Gavin Ackers-Johnson spent five weeks in Mulago during the summer working with the records manager in the Obstetrics Department to develop the records keeping facility and produced the first Annual Benchmarking Report on Maternal and Perinatal Mortality at Mulago Hospital.
On returning to the UK, and to continue to develop capacity in this area, the project has been awarded two Commonwealth Professional Fellowships to enable Mr Joseph Ddumba the Deputy Manager of the records office and his assistant, Mr Joseph Kiggundu, to spend a month working alongside the evaluation team in Liverpool in February 2011.
This initiative, uniquely facilitating the exchange of non-clinical staff, will play a critical role in supporting sustainable data and patient management systems and contribute to the comprehensive evaluation of this innovative North-South Healthcare Partnership.
The Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, will be visiting the High Dependency Unit on 11 December.
For more information on the partnership visit: http://www.liverpoolmulagopartnership.org/