Below are extracts from a news item on the WHO Africa website, and a comment from me. Full text here:
https://www.afro.who.int/news/how-home-based-care-eased-rwandas-covid-19...
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How home-based care eased Rwanda’s COVID-19 response
19 April 2022
Kigali – Operation Save the Neighbour, an initiative to save lives at the community level and reduce the burden on hospitals by integrating doctors into home-based care teams...
COVID-19 home-based care had been introduced in September 2020 to relieve pressure on health facilities, adapting guidance issued by World Health Organization (WHO) to the country’s context.
With Operation Save the Neighbour, patients’ and doctors’ geolocations are mapped, then doctors paired with community health workers to attend to cases within walking distance...
The approach has strengthened the support system around community health workers, who can be assigned to care for as many as 100 COVID-19 patients. The initiative has trained and equipped community health workers and guaranteed them the support of doctors.
“As community health workers, our knowledge and skills are limited, and the population is aware of that,” says Rutagarama Wendislas, lead community health worker in Gisozi Sector in the capital Kigali. “Knowing we can just pick up the phone and ring a doctor for support has boosted our confidence and created trust among the population.”
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COMMENT (NPW): "Knowing we can just pick up the phone and ring a doctor for support has boosted our confidence and created trust among the population." Clearly, mobile phones are especially important for frontline health workers in the community, who often work alone. In what ways do community health workers use their mobile phones to communicate with colleagues?
Best wishes, Neil
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org
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