Help HJRA Hospital Madagascar
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Help for Hôpital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona, Madagascar
Firstly, thank you for considering to donate to help improve healthcare in the largest University teaching hospital Madagascan hospital, Hôpital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona (HJRA).
Madagascar is the 10th poorest country in the World and approximately 2.6% of the country’s GDP is allocated to healthcare. Consequently, many people living on the breadline have to pay siginificant amounts of money towards their public health care.
HJRA is the largest surgical teaching hospital in the entire country based in the capital Antananarivo and has over 600 inpatient beds. This public hospital is predominantly staffed by Madagascan and African health professionals and they are extremely dedicated in trying to provide the best patient care and work tirelessly, serving between 100-120 patients in the emergency department every day.
Due to an astonishing lack of funding, the hospital’s status and exterior belies the resources and equipment that is necessary to care for patients and to save lives.
HJRA has evidence of significant underfunding throughout its departments. The public emergency department is the designated centre for the sickest surgical presentations in the country for public patients. It is in desperate need of as much financial aid as possible in order to equip the staff with what they need to best manage these patients. It is a shocking to think that there are shopping centres/sporting venues in the Western World that have more life saving equipment than HJRA.
Reasons why Hôpital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona needs our help:
▪ Whilst health care is free, every patient must pay for all medications and all equipment used in their management. This includes small things one might expect to readily find in a hospital such as thermometers, bandages/blood test equipment and drips, and even gloves for the doctors and nurses to use in their treatment.
▪ If they are unable to pay, a doctor has to visit a hospital-based government officer to plead their case for funding. It is ultimately the government officer who decides whether the poorest patients receive or are denied health care. It is an agonising wait for all involved as life saving treatment is postponed pending adequate funds to pay for the emergency care.
▪ There is no defibrillator available in the emergency department; if a patients’ heart stops beating, doctors and nurses are not able to restart it electrically. Patients of all ages are not receiving optimum resuscitation attempts because there is simply not the necessary equipment to do so.
▪ There are no oxygen masks in the emergency department. They only have nasal prongs to deliver a small amount of oxygen meaning many people can die from lack of oxygen. Furthermore, there is no equipment to test oxygen levels so doctors and nurses have to estimate whether someone’s oxygen is low rather than be able to see this on a monitor.
▪ If a patient needs to have a tube placed into their lungs to help them to breathe, a family member or friend must stay with the patient 24/7 to squeeze the oxygen bag approximately 12 times every minute until an outcome is reached. In the intensive care unit, family members keep patients alive for days and weeks on end because the cost of ventilators and staff for this is just too much for the hospital to afford.
These are just a few examples of what hospital medical care is like currently in Madagascar. I am determined to help fund HJRA to help best optimise patient care for the sickest patients by helping to provide the equipment they need to save lives. Myself, the staff and the patients of Madagascar thank you very much.
Firstly, thank you for considering to donate to help improve healthcare in the largest University teaching hospital Madagascan hospital, Hôpital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona (HJRA).
Madagascar is the 10th poorest country in the World and approximately 2.6% of the country’s GDP is allocated to healthcare. Consequently, many people living on the breadline have to pay siginificant amounts of money towards their public health care.
HJRA is the largest surgical teaching hospital in the entire country based in the capital Antananarivo and has over 600 inpatient beds. This public hospital is predominantly staffed by Madagascan and African health professionals and they are extremely dedicated in trying to provide the best patient care and work tirelessly, serving between 100-120 patients in the emergency department every day.
Due to an astonishing lack of funding, the hospital’s status and exterior belies the resources and equipment that is necessary to care for patients and to save lives.
HJRA has evidence of significant underfunding throughout its departments. The public emergency department is the designated centre for the sickest surgical presentations in the country for public patients. It is in desperate need of as much financial aid as possible in order to equip the staff with what they need to best manage these patients. It is a shocking to think that there are shopping centres/sporting venues in the Western World that have more life saving equipment than HJRA.
Reasons why Hôpital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona needs our help:
▪ Whilst health care is free, every patient must pay for all medications and all equipment used in their management. This includes small things one might expect to readily find in a hospital such as thermometers, bandages/blood test equipment and drips, and even gloves for the doctors and nurses to use in their treatment.
▪ If they are unable to pay, a doctor has to visit a hospital-based government officer to plead their case for funding. It is ultimately the government officer who decides whether the poorest patients receive or are denied health care. It is an agonising wait for all involved as life saving treatment is postponed pending adequate funds to pay for the emergency care.
▪ There is no defibrillator available in the emergency department; if a patients’ heart stops beating, doctors and nurses are not able to restart it electrically. Patients of all ages are not receiving optimum resuscitation attempts because there is simply not the necessary equipment to do so.
▪ There are no oxygen masks in the emergency department. They only have nasal prongs to deliver a small amount of oxygen meaning many people can die from lack of oxygen. Furthermore, there is no equipment to test oxygen levels so doctors and nurses have to estimate whether someone’s oxygen is low rather than be able to see this on a monitor.
▪ If a patient needs to have a tube placed into their lungs to help them to breathe, a family member or friend must stay with the patient 24/7 to squeeze the oxygen bag approximately 12 times every minute until an outcome is reached. In the intensive care unit, family members keep patients alive for days and weeks on end because the cost of ventilators and staff for this is just too much for the hospital to afford.
These are just a few examples of what hospital medical care is like currently in Madagascar. I am determined to help fund HJRA to help best optimise patient care for the sickest patients by helping to provide the equipment they need to save lives. Myself, the staff and the patients of Madagascar thank you very much.
Organizer
Michelle Cole
Organizer
Fairfield QLD
