Emergency Care
This project aims to improve the delivery of treatment for people with acute or life-threatening injuries by strengthening health worker skills in trauma care and establishing a triage system at Hargeisa Group Hospital - Somaliland’s largest public referral hospital.
The Challenge
Injuries cause over five million deaths per year in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – making trauma the primary cause of death and disability in people aged between five and 44 years old. For every person injured, many more are left with temporary or lifelong disabilities.
The burden of injury is especially pronounced in LMICs, where health care systems are least prepared to meet the challenge. Studies looking at how injuries are treated across different countries, show that people injured to a similar extent are nearly twice as likely to die in a low-income setting, compared to a high-income setting.
In Somaliland, there is limited pre-hospital care, very few ambulances and few hospital staff with training in trauma and intensive care.
How KGHP is supporting our partners in Somaliland
We are rolling out the first Primary Trauma Care (PTC) training to staff from nine hospitals in Somaliland. PTC is a system of training for frontline staff in trauma management. It aims to prevent death and disability in seriously injured patients and is specifically tailored to health workers in low resource settings – using straightforward clinical practice and basic equipment that can save lives.
Alongside this work, we are supporting Hargeisa Group Hospital to make improvements to their emergency care. A team of NHS doctors and nurses, specialising in emergency care conducted an assessment of the Emergency Department and worked with the management team to introduce a system to triage (assess and prioritise) patients. We also providing training and equipment to enable health workers to monitor patients’ vital signs (such as blood pressure, temperature and oxygen saturation) to identify and manage patients at risk of deterioration.
This project is supported through the Africa Grants Programme, funded by the Johnson and Johnson family of companies and managed by THET. It is implemented in Partnership with the Ministry of Health Development and Primary Trauma Care Foundation.
Impact
- Trained 168 healthcare workers across nine hospitals in Primary Trauma Care.
- Established a national primary trauma care committee and trained 28 healthcare workers as trainers to cascade trauma training.
- At the end of the project, an audit of triage at Hargeisa Group Hospital showed 45% of patients were being assessed using the new triage system and sicker patients were being seen more quickly than in the baseline assessment.
