ETATMBA Teleconference – 10th March 2011 8:30hrs GMT
Notes
Present: Dr Paul O’Hare (Chair), Dr David Davies, Professor Siobhan Quenby, Professor
Frances Griffiths, Dr Doug Simkiss, Dr Chisale Mhango, Dr Godfrey Mbaruku, Dr Francis
Kawmendo, Prof Staffan Bergstrom, Miss Maria Ovens, Mrs Lynda Mason, Dr Anne-Marie
Brennan
Dr Francis Kamwendo joined the teleconference at the beginning but lost the connection half-way
through the meeting.
1.
Apologies
Apologies received from Professor Johnson.
2.
Minutes of last teleconference (10th February 2011)
Approved.
3 & 4. EC Contracts and pre-financing
 The pre-financing has arrived and may be distributed once the signed accession
forms have been received. Forms have been received from all parties except
Ifakara. The contracts officer in Ifakara is reviewing the document and will send it
back by next week.
 The accession form for the Malawi College of Medicine will be treated separately.
5 & 6. Progress report (EP)
Prof Peile was unable to attend the meeting.
 PO’H therefore reported on last week’s teleconference with EP. The plan of training for the
NCPs was discussed, as well as the importance of consistency in the curriculum and
robust assessment of outcomes.
 SB explained the plan for Tanzania: there will be 4 months of training, followed by
observation of practice. A total of 60 staff will be trained: 30 AMOs and 30 nursemidwives. The AMOs are focusing on surgery, the nurse-midwives on anaesthesia.
 Outcomes will be assessed with before-and-after studies and monthly audit studies in
Tanzania. It would be feasible to ask the Malawi PhD students to collect similar data. CM
reported that Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (EmONC) assessment has just
been conducted, which would provide useful baseline statistics.
 DS commented that the differences between the two countries would require variations to
course content and curriculum and that this could be justified as long as there is
commonality in outcomes.
 Curriculum planning for Malawi is underway, and PO’H would like to compare notes with
the Tanzania to ensure that both sites are covering similar areas.
8.
Deliverables
 PO’H emphasised the importance of these tasks and their target dates.
 The website should be updated with course and other related information.
The link to the website is http://etatmba.org.
Action: AMB to email agreed deliverables to all colleagues.
9. PhD Programmes / CARTA
 The two people in Malawi identified as potential PhD candidates should apply now to
CARTA, with the full support of ETATMBA colleagues.
 If they are placed in the first 25, they will be appointed CARTA fellows funded by the
project.
 If they come 26th or 27th, CARTA will still take them, funded by ETATMBA. However,
ETATMBA will still fund the students, even if they do not achieve CARTA fellowships.
10. June meeting
GM reported that the meeting will be held in the week commencing Monday 20th June.
 Arrival Monday 20th June
 Travel to Ifakara Tuesday 21st June
 Project discussions Wednesday 22nd-Thursday 23rd June
 Return travel Friday 24th June
Action: AMB to request agenda items from colleagues.
11.
Any other business
 DS asked if the Tanzanian course taught intubation of infants. SB replied that they focus
on bag-and-mask, though even this can be unavailable. They use a basic model Laerdal
doll.
 There were some technical difficulties – Warwick will investigate and try and improve this.
12. Date of next meeting
Thursday 14th April.
Please note that the UK will be on British Summer Time by then (clocks +1.00 hour). Sweden will
also be on Daylight Saving Time (clocks +1.00hr). Tanzania and Malawi are unaffected.
The teleconference start times will be as follows:
08.30 – UK
09.30 – Sweden
09.30 – Malawi
10.30 – Tanzania