THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL HOSPITAL OF QUELIMANE RECOGNIZES CHAMPS’ CONTRIBUTION

In a meeting with the Communication team of the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM), as part

Dr Ladino Suade, Director of the Central Hospital of Quelimane

of the collection of success stories of the CHAMPS program (Child Health and Mortality

Prevention Surveillance), the Director of the

Central Hospital of Quelimane, Dr Ladino Suade acknowledged the contribution of this project to the reduction of infant mortality rates.

The director of that hospital unit believed that the study, carried out in children under 5 years, facilitates clinical intervention, as doctors come to know the real causes of death in the district, which encourages the search for better forms of treatment.

Also according to the source, “the CHAMPS project bought gains to the Hospital because there was a change in the approach to treating illnesses for minors and, consequently, there was a reduction in the infant mortality rate in the age group under study.” In addition, Dr. Ladino highlighted the contribution that the HCQ has received by the project, namely the reinforcement of the hospital’s technical and laboratory capacity, through the hiring of technical staff with skills to respond to specific departments, the acquisition of new equipment, reagents and hospital supplies for the laboratory, as well as training for health professionals, which significantly contributed to improving the capacity of medical care.

He emphasized that “based on knowledge of the causes of infant mortality, the HCQ has implanted a new circuit that involves the arrival of the child, observation, laboratory tests, establishment of a definitive diagnosis and its respective treatment.” And he recommended that, “ideally, this project would be spread to all provinces of the country, or, what was the result of the study, be published and disseminated in all health services, including private assistance, to ensure that, the child of the age group in question receives a proper diagnosis and treatment”.

HCQ is currently a major partner for projects implementation in Zambézia province. It is the only place where MITS are held in the district of Quelimane. So far, around X cases have been recruited, of which X have already received their results. In addition to interventions at the hospital unit level, the CHAMPS project has developed other interconnected actions within the scope of the community involvement strategy, such as last year’s training for journalists, which had 27 participants.

Meeting between the CISM Communication Team and the HCQ Director

Also within the scope of the community involvement strategy of the CHAMPS program, the CISM will organize, between April 21 and 22, a training of spokespersons aimed at leaders of public institutions in the health sector, with a goal of training them for relationships with the press, whose purpose is to maximize collaboration between different skate holders from public institutions in the health sector at the provincial level. In this capacity building, in addition the participation of representatives from the districts of Mocuba and Mopeia may also take part. It is expected that the participants acquire tools that will help them to transmit information about health, more specifically about child mortality, in an efficient way that can better influence communities.