El Salvador

Our work in El Salvador started with a visit in 2008 by staff from the Rosie Hospital to run a national three-day neonatal ultrasound workshop. This area was of particular concern for our partners as maternal mortality was high (68 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 12 in the UK in the year 2001).

The partnership has centred around national congresses which attract up to 1,500 staff from maternity and neonatal care hospitals across El Salvador, and have been combined with reciprocal working visits by El Salvadorian clinical staff to the UK.

The congresses provide specialised practical training for healthcare workers in how to manage and treat obstetric and neonatal emergencies.

Through our partnerships between a multi-disciplinary team from CUH’s Rosie Maternity Hospital and the Ministry of Health, the National Maternity Hospital, and the National Children’s Hospital in San Salvador, we have helped introduce and establish:

• 24/7 specialist cover in all national maternity hospitals
• skills drills
• a two-year programme for registrars in intensive care and gynaecology
• a ‘Code Red’ system
• guidelines on managing the treatment for patients suffering from postpartum haemorrhage
• midwifery and multi-disciplinary team working
• a new sub-specialty course in Intensive Care in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

In 2017 we carried out a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis on this longstanding partnership, which indicated that for every £1 invested we delivered approximately £3 of social value.