In northern Mozambique, child mortality is high. This is partly due to overcrowded accident and emergency departments with long waiting times. SolidarMed is helping healthcare facilities roll out a system of coloured cards which designate the urgency of treatment. This ensures that children in life-threatening situations are treated more quickly than less urgent cases, which in turn increases their chances of survival.
Keyfacts of the project
Treatment according to urgency
In accident and emergency departments in northern Mozambique, patients are treated in the order they arrive, regardless of their state of health. For children in particular, this means that treatment sometimes comes too late. SolidarMed is helping tackle this by introducing an internationally-recognised triage system. Specially-trained reception staff assign a colour to patients as they arrive which allows them to be treated according to the urgency of their situation. Digital patient records also ensure a swift exchange of information within the hospital, and awareness campaigns promote acceptance among waiting patients and educate parents about their children’s health.
Geared up for emergencies
Besides rapid treatment, the quality of care and the availability of equipment are key. SolidarMed therefore runs training and catch-up courses for health workers on paediatric emergency care and procures any medical equipment that is lacking. Reception staff are also trained and can attend refresher courses so that they have the necessary medical knowledge to assign the coloured cards.
Scaling up the successful model
SolidarMed is working to ensure that the successful coloured card triage system is rolled out in as many locations as possible. To this end, SolidarMed is working with medical training centres and national and provincial health authorities. There is a great deal of interest in the colour-coded triage system and many other healthcare facilities are likely to roll out the system and everything that goes with it.
