Saving women's lives

Saving women's lives
Known as the RCOG International Office , the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) will team up in an international initiative to improve the standards of women's health in developing countries.

Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health (LATH), the project management and consultancy arm of LSTM, is the third partner.

This initiative is an important and timely one, as more than half a million women die each year through pregnancy related conditions because they do not have access to the most basic healthcare which women in developed countries take for granted. The RCOG International Office hopes to reduce these horrific figures through working with health ministries, international donors, UN agencies and other international organisations in Third World countries.

RCOG International Office aims to improve the quality of antenatal, delivery and postnatal services and to help make these increasingly available to poor women worldwide. Strategies range from developing a simple but lifesaving manual for use in rural clinics, where one midwife may be struggling alone, raising awareness about clinical standards in women's healthcare in impoverished states, to mobilising RCOG members to volunteer their expertise in developing countries, in partnership with governments and local colleagues, including midwives and doctors.

Dr Nynke van den Broek, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Reproductive Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and an RCOG Member, helped set up the partnership. She said: "More than 80% of these deaths are caused by conditions which we are very able to prevent or treat: bleeding, obstructed labour, eclampsia, infection and unsafe abortions. We hope our alliance will help to mobilise efforts so that we can change these horrific figures.

"The issue of women's health comes on and off the global agenda. However, what is clear is that all women need to have access to essential obstetric and gynaecological care. They need to have a skilled birth attendant, not just a relative. They also need to have a facility to which they can go if a problem develops. For a lot of women this is not yet available.

"Almost half the members of the RCOG are in developing countries. We hope that by pulling together our expertise, we can achieve something meaningful."

Professor Jim Dornan, RCOG Vice President, agreed, saying: "The vast majority of maternal deaths are preventable by simply having appropriately trained staff with the correct equipment at the bedside.

This Memorandum of Understanding between us will improve quality where it is needed by producing guidelines, standards of care and lifesaving skills courses that provide technical knowledge to empower those who have the ability to change health systems."

The partners are already involved in Safe Motherhood programmes in Nigeria, Kenya and Malawi, which has the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. They also train health workers from around the world on the Diploma in Reproductive Medicine which they run jointly at the school.

A pilot of the new Life Saving Skills course will be held in Liverpool at LSTM on 3 – 5 July. The formal launch of RCOG International Office will be held in London at the RCOG on 14 September.

ENDS

For more information about RCOG International, please contact Gerald Chan, RCOG Head of Communications & External Affairs on email gchan@rcog.org.uk or call 020 7772 6446.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists ( www.rcog.org.uk ) is dedicated to encouraging the study and advancing the science and practice of obstetrics and gynaecology. Its main aim is to improve

standards in Women's Reproductive Health so that optimum levels in clinical and service provision are available to specialists and users.

To achieve this, the RCOG is responsible for developing clinical best practice standards, running membership examinations, conducting postgraduate training activities, including the co-ordination of a

continuing professional development programme and organising conferences and courses for the discipline.

The RCOG has more than 11,500 members, approximately half are based overseas. To support the professional needs of its membership, it is engaged in several ongoing initiatives such as:

Providing expert guidelines and advice in Clinical Governance and Standards and patient information
Providing postgraduate training opportunities including Special Skills and Subspecialty training
The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine ( http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm/ ) is a world renowned centre of excellence whose mission is to promote improved health, particularly for the people of less developed countries in the tropics and sub-tropics.

It aims to achieve this through the creation of effective links with governments, organisations and institutions and by responding to the health needs of communities by:

Providing and promoting high quality education and training
Conducting first class research and disseminating the result of that research
Developing systems and technologies for health care and assisting in their transfer and management
Providing appropriate consultancy services
Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health ( www.lath.com ) is celebrating its' 20 th anniversary this year. LATH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and is charged with the coordination of the School's consultancy activities. All LATH's surplus revenues are invested in the School's pioneering work in tropical medicine and international health. The organisation prides itself on channelling LSTM's charitable mission into a values-led approach, delivering sustainability through capacity development and continually putting issues of equality and vulnerability to the fore . LATH brings strong expertise and experience in programme management and technical experience of health systems in less developed countries. It works across the wide spectrum of international health including malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, NTDs and health systems – planning, financing, equity and access, human resources, and procurement.
Date published: 27/06/2006 - 01:00Published by: Simon KempNo of comments: 0
Categories
RCOG Press release