On 16 March 2016 at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Doctors with Africa CUAMM held a workshop entitled “From Zero Ebola to Zero Maternal Mortality – Can an Investment in the Referral System Make Any Difference?” .

The panel of speakers presented the objectives, activities and strategic vision of Doctors with Africa CUAMM in order to share the lessons the NGO learned while carrying out activities in the Pujehun District, where it succeeded in maintaining health services for mothers and children for the duration of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak.

Despite the massive effort required to tackle and contain the epidemic, in fact, Doctors with Africa CUAMM chose to remain in Sierra Leone to help ensure the continuity of maternal and infant health care services and guarantee access to health care services for all of the District’s inhabitants.

The workshop highlighted the fact that while at the height of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 the number of people visiting hospitals in the country’s other districts fell significantly, use of maternal and pediatric health care services in Pujehun Hospital did not decline in a similarly drastic manner

Doctors with Africa CUAMM also improved the referral system in Pujehun District in January 2015 by providing three ambulances for transportation from primary health care units to the second level of care. Data show that obstetric referrals rose by +251% in 2015 compared to 2014, and that maternal mortality in obstetric emergency assisted fell from 17.02% in 2011 to 0.89% in 2015. This was a consequence both of the new availability of transportation services and the activities that were carried out to make the population aware of them.

Doctors with Africa CUAMM sought to demonstrate to workshop participants how the positive results achieved in Pujehun District depended on three important aspects:

• the trusting relationship that was built up between the local community and the health care organization;
• the investments that were made in the local health care system;
• the cooperation that developed between local authorities and the broader community.

Guest speakers at the workshop included:

• Dr. Santigie Sesay – Director of Reproductive and Child Health, Ministry of Health and Sanitation
• Anders Nordstrom – WHO Representative in Sierra Leone
• Nuzhat Rafique – UNICEF Health Manager
• Dr. Vincenzo Pisani –Doctors with Africa CUAMM, Senior Gynecologist working at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Sierra Leone
• Dr. Giovanni Putoto – Doctors with Africa CUAMM, Head of Planning and Operational Research

⇒ Learn more about CUAMM in Sierra Leone

The factsheets of the workshop:

• Keeping mothers and children healthy in the time of Ebola: good practice in Pujehun, Sierra Leone
• The Quality-of-Care Challenge in Pujehun, Sierra Leone: from the Referral System to Emergency Obstetric Care