Bro Morgannwg-Sierra Leone Link

At a glance

Fields of work: Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health, Reproductive Health

UK Link Partner: NHS Trust
UK Link Partner County: Mid Glamorgan

Developing Country Link Partner: Public Hospital/Clinic
Developing Country Link Partner: Sierra Leone

Link Details

The Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust(ABM) is an integrated Trust in Wales which provides acute hospital; mental health and community services. The main purpose of the link, agreed with the previous and present Ministers of Health and Sanitation, is to support the programme for scaling up basic services for sexual, reproductive and child health and, in particular, the accelerated child survival project in the context of the Millennium Goals for improving the health of children and women.

The link will focus on the Ola During Children’s Hospital in Freetown. We plan in partnership with the Children’s Hospital to develop an on-going training programme which will result in better survival rates for children and women and the improvement of care generally. We visited our partners at the end of January(28:1:08-1:2:08) with the Sierra Leone Institute of Child Health (SLICH)-SLICH aims to strengthen the provision of high quality paediatric care and develop a national system for training and supporting healthcare professionals. One development as a result of the visit was to look at ways in which the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital could come to participate in the link;(strongly supported by the Minister for Health and Sanitation, Dr Soccoh Kabia). We now plan, as a first step, to discuss with the Children’s their priorities for training and any associated equipment needs.

Current activities

Between our April and October 2009 visits a new health organisation was created out of the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust (ABMU) and the Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend Local Health Boards to form the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board (ABMULHB). Below are a list of reports from Health Link visits to Sierra Leone.