Recruiting: Voluntary Medical Coordinator 2010-2011

Voluntary Position Available – Medical Coordinator
Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone
Assignment Length: One year
Application Deadline: 31st January 2010
Starting – July 2010 (start date may be somewhat flexible)

Job Description

The Medical Coordinator (MC) will provide technical leadership and contribute to the development and implementation of ongoing and new project activities aimed at improving the quality of paediatric health care in Sierra Leone, starting at the country’s only specialist paediatric facility, Ola During Children’s Hospital (ODCH).

Responsibilities

The Medical Coordinator (MC) is responsible for the design and implementation of all medical project work. This includes:

1. Needs assessment and planning: Work with partners in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and Ola During Children’s Hospital (ODCH), to identify barriers to the delivery of timely and effective healthcare for children and develop ongoing plans to address these barriers.

2. Implementation: Take joint responsibility with ODCH management and staff for implementing medical project work. This may include coordinating and delivering in-service training for healthcare workers, promoting improved clinical standards and supporting the introduction of new technologies and techniques.

3. Monitoring and evaluation: Together the Welbodi Directors and local partners, design and implement systems to monitor the process, effectiveness, and impact of activities on desired outcome measures.

4. Relationships: Work closely with doctors, nurses and other staff in the hospital to ensure good communication between ODCH and the Welbodi Partnership on all issues. Periodically meet with donors, international and local NGOs, and MoHS to update them. Where appropriate, you may develop collaborations and partnerships within broader efforts to reduce child mortality in Sierra Leone.

5. Fundraising: Help the Welbodi Partnership fundraisers to identify funding needs and provide appropriate technical information as necessary in the development of fundraising materials and proposals.

6. Clinical Work. Engage in direct patient care in order to maintain clinical skills and gain first-hand knowledge of the realities of patient care within this environment.
Qualifications

1. Medical or nursing degree is essential with at least two years experience working in health care. Additional postgraduate qualification in international development, public health or public policy is highly desirable.
2. Professional experience of healthcare in Africa.
3. In-depth, substantive knowledge of healthcare policy in developing countries.
4. Excellent people skills and a demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with people from diverse backgrounds in a dynamic and constantly-shifting environment.
5. Excellent written and oral English communication skills.
6. Flexibility, focus, and the presence of mind to work in sometimes difficult and chaotic circumstances.
7. Commitment to the goals and principles of the Welbodi Partnership.

Applications

The Welbodi Partnership (WP) is a UK-registered charity established to support the provision of paediatric health care in Sierra Leone and in particular to support the Sierra Leone Institute for Child Health (SLICH). SLICH is a joint project between the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Ola During Children’s Hospital, and the Welbodi Partnership to create a centre of excellence in paediatric care. It forms part of the Government of Sierra Leone’s Strategic Plan for Reproductive and Child Health.

Ola During is Sierra Leone’s only specialist children’s hospital, located on Fourah Bay Road in the poor and densely-populated eastern part of Freetown. More than 15,000 patients are treated at the hospital each year, spread across two inpatient wards, an outpatient department, emergency room, ICU and a therapeutic feeding centre. The hospital is extremely under-resourced, however, and providing adequate care is still a challenge.

To learn more about us, please visit our website at www.welbodipartnership.org.

We are seeking an individual to fill the role of Medical Coordinator described above, who will work alongside the two Welbodi Partnership Directors in Freetown and in the UK, our Fundraisers and a network of local and international partners.

Interested candidates should please send a CV and cover letter by 31st January 2010 for the attention of: Matthew Clark

info@welbodipartnership.org



Further Important information for applicants

The Welbodi Partnership is a small organisation with limited financial resources. To keep our overheads low, this position has been filled on a voluntary basis over the past 2 years.

We are willing to contribute towards cost of travel, visas, and medical insurance, but you would need to cover your own living expenses.

In order for you to decide whether or not you can do so, we want you to know what to expect in terms of the cost of living. Although Sierra Leone is a very poor country, it is surprisingly expensive to live an expatriate lifestyle. You can get a relatively simple self-contained local-style flat for around $3,000 per year, but it may not have running water (instead you'd find someone to bring you buckets of water each day), frequent electricity (you could buy and fuel a private generator), or modern appliances.

In contrast, a room in a larger, higher-end house in one of the nicer areas of town will likely run you upwards of $400 per month, plus $200-300 more for electricity, water, a cleaner, internet, etc. Likewise, it is possible to by a local meal of rice and sauce for just a few dollars, but an individual pizza in one of the more upmarket Western-style restaurants costs $12. And taking local shared taxis back and forth to the hospital would cost about $1-2 / day, while chartering an individual taxi could run $10-15 per day and buying and fuelling a private vehicle is similar.

As the Medical Coordinator of the Welbodi Partnership, you would have a direct and significant impact on the quality of care provided to children both at ODCH and throughout the paediatric healthcare system. You would be part of building a relatively new organization from the ground up, of identifying and implementing high-impact interventions -- including quality training for Sierra Leone's young doctors and nurses -- and of building a foundation for lasting change. You would join a committed core team and would be responsible for leveraging the contributions of a wider network of volunteers and partners to bring significant and lasting change to ODCH.