Quality Talks

In Nigeria’s Delta State, a public/private partnership is rehabilitating 25 defunct health facilities to provide quality primary health care services to remote and underserved communities. The Primary Health Care Revitalization and Access to Finance Scheme hands over public health facilities to private providers and outsources primary health care services to these providers. Dr. Ibironke Dada, Director for quality activities, MNCH projects at the Pharmacess Foundation, tells us how the...

A recent study conducted in Nepal assessed the indirect impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the quality of intrapartum care that women received in health facilities. The study, published in The Lancet, looks at the implications of a reduced access to care, but also at the gaps in the quality of the care provided. Dr. Ashish K.C, who led the study, is a perinatal epidemiologist and a researcher specializing in quality of care, based in the Department of Women's and Children's Health,...

Many children’s deaths could be prevented if the most sick children were identified soon after their arrival in a health facility, and were prioritized to be treated immediately. The Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) programme was ​initially designed by the World Health Organization in 2005 to drastically reduce waiting time, improve flow and access to quality protocol-driven care for children presenting to hospitals in resource-limited settings, and thereby improve pediatric...

A recent study conducted in Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Nigeria and published in the Lancet showed that one in three women experienced physical or verbal mistreatment during childbirth in health facilities. Adrienne Strong is a medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida who studies maternal mortality and women's health in Tanzania, and the notions of ideal comfort, care, and support for pregnant women in labour. She observed a birth...

Chhavi Sharma, a medical student at the Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, explains how learning Quality Improvement skills, in addition to her clinical skills, is changing the way she approaches patients, and preparing her to be a better medical professional. Chhavi is a founding member of Be the Change, a group of medical and nursing students committed to improving quality of care and supported by India’s Nationwide Quality of Care Network.

Emmanuel Ayire Adongo, from the World Health Organisation Country Office in Ghana explains how a simple tool – a scorecard, building on an existing policy and community engagement structures – has made it possible to engage communities in the planning, roll-out and assessment of health services. From community representatives touring facilities, to community members pitching in to improve the infrastructure, listen to the impact this tool had on the involvement of the community, the...

Over 90 health facilities in the Eboni and Kogi states of Nigeria have joined a quality improvement initiative to improve the quality of care for women and newborn on the day of birth.In just two years, they have seen massive improvement in some of the key clinical practices such as managing post-partum haemorrhage, resuscitating a newborn or encouraging early breastfeeding. And the communities they are serving are seeing a difference in the care they receive. Dr Ugo Okoli is the Deputy...

There has been several pieces of work published recently on how health systems are failing and how they have to evolve and focus on quality of care, to adapt to changing needs and support Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Last month, The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era published its report examining what a high-quality health system should look like. A study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine looks into the global...

What can anxious parents of small and sick newborns do to care for their baby, in a health facility? And how does their willingness to help go down with health workers? Professor Arti Maria, Head of Neonatology at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, in New Delhi, India has, for over a decade, been pioneering a family participatory care approach, to involve parents and relatives in caring for sick and small newborns. She tells us about the challenges, the impact on the experience of care, and...

Health facilities need to have access to water, sanitation, energy, as well as supplies of medicines and equipment to deliver quality care to women and newborns. These pre-requisites are a part of the World Health Organization’s standards for improving quality of maternal and newborn health in health facilities. Natasha Mwenda, Manager of the Deliver Life project in Malawi, which is run by WaterAid and supported by the UK’s Department of International Development (DfID), explains how...

Quality Talks is the podcast of the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Quality Talks will bring you the stories of healthcare professionals who are experienced in running and managing quality of care initiatives, whether at a very small scale or country-wide. They will share their experiences on how they got started, how they are hoping to make a difference, and what they have learned along the way. The first Quality Talks series focuses on...