Sustainable support for the community hospital in St Louis du Nord
Situation:
Haiti ranks 170th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index. Years of political, economic and social instability together with natural disasters such as the earthquake in 2010 or Hurricane Matthew in 2016, a high rate of inflation and a lack of production in the country itself contribute to a lack of infrastructure in health care system. Maternal mortality is with 521 per 100,000 live births extremely high. The northwest, including St. Louis du Nord is considered to be one of the most neglected regions in the country.
Objectives:
Maintaining, securing and improving access to health care and surgical services for the population in the northwest of the country
Number
- of patients in the hospital
- of operations performed
- of births and C-sections performed
- Improvement and reparation concept aimed to maintain and advance the existing infrastructure.
- Sustainably and increasing the hospital's ranking in the national health system, thereby improving and consolidating health care in the region in the long term.
- Temporary support of specialists employed by the Institution.
In 2020 the hospital was completely converted to solar and is now 100 percent solar powered. This not only has a positive effect on the environment, but also enables the hospital to run more economically. In Haiti 85 percent of the population are not connected to the national electricity grid including the region in St Louis du Nord. Before the transition the Hospital was dependent on high priced fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. The conversion to solar enables the hospital now to use these additional resources for personnel, medical medical supplies and reparations.
In the coming years, we will seek to find additional, innovative, sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions to address the existing problems of the hospital together and hand in hand with the local team.
The community hospital in St Louis du Nord Spital in St Louis is the only public hospital in the entire north-west of the country that has a proper working surgery with staff on site to offer and perform surgical services and operations reliably. Maintenance and improvement of the infrastructure is therefore vital and lifesaving for the population in the region.
NEWS:
Sonja Schilling is Managing Director at the organization HADPRE. She has been involved in Haiti since the earthquake more than 10 years ago and reports on the current situation at the St Louis du Nord hospital under pandemic conditions.
As part of the national pandemic response, the government selected St Louis du Nord Hospital, among others, as the official Covid treatment center because it offers the highest standard of medical care in the Northwest Department. Due to the global shortage of protective medical equipment, Haiti was unable to provide resources to treat Covid 19 patients or protect medical staff at that time.
Through EKFS, the hospital was able to procure various protective equipment in small quantities nationally and internationally, as well as oxygen equipment and other supplies to treat the sick while protecting staff.
Today, the facility still serves as a referral hospital for the treatment of covid patients in the Northwest and has been able to replenish its PPE and supplies in recent months.Fortunately Haiti has experienced only a small number of Covid 19 deaths to date.
Here you can find further information.
