The present action is aimed at implementing a capacity building programme on Specialised Care for São Toméan qualified professionals, working together with the São Toméan government to define a development plan to improve the HAM’s (Hospital Dr. Ayres de Menezes) services and care, strengthen the Telemedicine system and increase the connection and harmonisation between donors and cooperation actors, such as Hospitals and Portuguese professionals. The project is part of the Heath for All: Integrated Programme which also includes the project Primary Care: autonomy and efficiency.

OBJECTIVES: 

Overall: contribute to the consolidation of the Sao Tome and Principe National Health System, by strengthening specialised health care and boosting the telemedicine system of as an instrument of support towards the effective improvement of national health indicators

Specific: promote the improvement and implementation of specialised health care in Sao Tome and Principe through a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach.

BENEFICIARIES:

Direct: the whole of the Sao Tomean population, around 187,500 inhabitants, as users of the National Health Service and around 769 health professionals and practitioners from Sao Tome.

GLOBAL ACTIVITIES:

• Implementation of 284 person -missions of 23 medical specialties in Sao Tome and Principe, covering the following medical skills: Pathology, General Surgery, Paediatric Surgery, Gynaecology, Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pneumology, Urology, Plastic
and Reconstructive Surgery, Orthopaedics and Traumatology;

• Technical Assistance Missions: installation of equipment and training of Sao Tomean staff for the use and maintenance, surveying, identification
and repair or replacement of the additional means of diagnostic equipment;

• Strengthening the provision of secondary and tertiary health care at the Central Hospital of Sao Tome and Principe – “Dr. Ayres de Menezes Hospital”, and creation, structuring and equipment of previously non -existing services. It is already visible the decrease in the number of patients in critical condition, as well as a more regular and effective medical follow -up of the communities;

• Project’s background as well as state of the art information and communication sessions targeting local, national and international media;

• Promotion of ongoing training, in -service, during the medical specialties field missions and courses in Sao Tome and Principe;

• Holding of training and seminars in Portugal;

• Acquisition and provision of medication, equipment, reagents and surgical materials for diagnosis, appointments and surgeries in the different medical and surgical specialties;

• Maintenance of technical guidance and distance advice via Telemedicine by Portuguese medical experts in various specialties such as Imaging, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, Paediatric Surgery, Orthopaedics, among others;

• Appointments and examinations via Telemedicine and archive of clinical exams files in radiology, ultrasound, mammography, breast ultrasound, echocardiography, retinoscopy, keratometry, tonometry, refractometry, slit lamp, among others;

• Cooperation strengthening with the network of Portuguese doctors and hospitals, public and private, namely for the active participation of doctors, nurses and practitioners in medical specialties field missions;

• Carrying out missions in 23 specialties with the collaboration of 27 hospitals and health institutions in Portugal to complement the range of care required with operational effectiveness and cost efficiency

PARTNERS:

Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Sao Tome and Principe, Camões – I.P.  and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation