Print This PageWorking to improve health care in Mozambique |
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| Mozambique is both peaceful and democratic but poor due to its limited resources. Sadly however life expectancy is very low. AIDS, gastroenteritis/cholera, tuberculosis, measles, malaria and trauma all contribute to the very high rates of infant, child, maternal and adult mortality.
There are only 800 doctors for a population of 17 million people. No more than 500 are Mozambican and the majority work in the southern province around the capital, Maputo. Doctor /patient ratios range from 1:50,000 – 1:157000 in some provinces. In 2000 specialists from Ipswich (UK) joined a steering group in Mozambique to examine the feasibility of providing the second faculty of medicine in the country at the Catholic University of Mozambique in Beira, in order to increase medical staff numbers in the Central and Northern provinces. Despite the considerable obstacles of limited finance, personnel and expertise, the first students were enrolled later that year. Their progress and the development of the faculty have been remarkable. The first cohort graduated in August 2007. There is now every prospect of the number of well-trained Mozambican doctors graduating per annum doubling or trebling per year from 2008 onwards. However this programme was and still remains precarious and therefore the new Faculty and the Central Hospital in Beira welcomed the offer of a twinning arrangement with the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust in the UK to fill gaps in the curriculum, to support the clinical training programme and help to raise standards of care in the hospital. The Ipswich - Beira Health Initiative was established to this end.
Click here to go to the information web site for the 'Making a Positive Difference' scheme, |
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