Essential hand sanitiser, scrubs and specialist training enable health workers to combat infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Infections cause 20% of maternal mortality in our partner hospitals in Kampala where around 30,000 births take place every year. This project helps mothers and babies stay healthy and prevents deaths. We need your support to maintain our established hand sanitiser production and dispensing at the hospitals, local procurement of scrubs and infection training for staff.
Supplies and workforce are stretched thin at our Kampala partner hospitals. Health workers on maternal and neonatal wards attend to 60-80 births a day; intensive care units have 60-100 infants at a time. COVID-19 has dramatically increased the need for infection prevention and control. Quality hand sanitiser and scrubs are expensive and supplies are unreliable. Training is required to develop staff knowledge and educate patients. Funding and technical support are needed to strengthen the system.
This project has already established on-site sustainable production and distribution of hand sanitiser. Ugandan suppliers of quality scrubs (protective wear for health staff) have been identified. Local procurement of alcohol concentrate, scrubs and training materials will support infection prevention and control, and the local economy. The project will provide supplies and specialist training to allow health workers to deliver the best care they can and improve the health of mothers and babies.
Over a million child deaths could occur globally in the next 6 months as a result of COVID-19. Sustainable production of hand sanitiser is a critical component of infection prevention and control. This project will create valuable tools for Kampala partners to address complex health challenges. Training for health workers and joint learning between institutions are long-term benefits both for our partners in Uganda and for our UK volunteers - their joint experiences build better health systems.
