Milestone in Child Health Reached: Welbodi Announces Accreditation of the Children's Hospital

Dr. Sarian Kamara and Honourable Minister Ms. Miatta Kargbo

Welbodi Partnership is pleased to inform you that the long awaited news of accreditation has reached the shores of Sierra Leone. Accreditation means that for the first time ever, doctors in Sierra Leone can pursue paediatric residency training without leaving the country.

The accreditation status of the Ola During Children's Hospital (ODCH) was officially announced during a meeting held on Wednesday 22 January 2014 at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in the presence of the Honourable Minister of Health, Ms Miatta Kargbo, and other representatives from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Ola During Children’s Hospital and the Welbodi Partnership.

After a brief overview of the accreditation process from 2010 to date by Dr. Tamra Runsewe-Abiodun, Head of Department of Paediatrics at ODCH, the news on the accreditation status of the hospital was announced and the official documentation was handed over to the Dr. Sarian Kamara, Acting Chief Medical Officer, who in turn handed it over to the Honourable Minister Ms. Miatta Kargbo.

The official letter from the West African College of Physicians stated that “The Council at its meeting held in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire on Wednesday 6th November, 2013 approved that your institution [Ola During Children’s Hospital] be granted temporary accreditation for 2 years, to train membership residents for paediatrics. The accreditation is for 2 years from 6th November 2013.”

The Minister addressed the audience by thanking those involved for their hard work in making accreditation become a reality. She highlighted the importance of this milestone and encouraged those present to continue their efforts in ensuring that postgraduate training will be delivered at a high standard.

Establishing in-country postgraduate training has been a core focus of Welbodi Partnership’s support to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and Ola During Children’s Hospital for the past five years. We have invested resources to support doctors to take the primary exam, to provide key upgrades to infrastructure and equipment (including the development of a state-of-the-art digital x-ray department), to cover the cost of accreditation visits, etc. We are grateful to our donors and partners who have enabled this to happen.

Accreditation for the Children’s Hospital is excellent news as it means that in-country paediatric training can commence and doctors no longer need to be sent abroad to do their paediatric residency training. This will boost the health services and human resource status in Sierra Leone and be of great benefit to the many children in the country in need of high quality paediatric specialist care.

We would like to congratulate the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Ola During Children’s Hospital staff in achieving this important milestone.

Welbodi Partnership will continue to support the Ministry and hospital staff to ensure that a high quality residency-training programme is developed and delivered and hope that together we can work towards achieving full accreditation in 2015.