In 2022, Ndi Moyo started a unique palliative care online case conferencing project. The aim is to allow palliative care providers across Malawi to share their knowledge, discuss cases, and support each other.
Ndi Moyo initially provided tablets to 4 sites across Malawi, where healthcare professionals had attended Ndi Moyo’s palliative care initiators’ course. Staff from St Peter’s Hospital in Likoma, Mulanje Mission Hospital, Zomba Central Hospital, and Kamuzu Central Hospital Cancer Centre met online with Ndi Moyo every 2 weeks, with one site presenting a palliative care case for discussion at each meeting. Power cuts and network problems are all too common in Malawi, but thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Ndi Moyo team and participating sites, the project has still been a huge success.
In October 2023, we were able to expand the project to a further six sites. Healthcare professionals from Kasina Health Centre, K2 TASO in Kasungu, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Kamuzu Barracks Hospital, Ekwedeni Mission Hospital and Mchinji District Hospital attended a 2-day training course in Salima to learn how to use the tablets and produce case presentations. Since then, we’ve had 11 sites successfully attending our fortnightly case conference! The Ndi Moyo team can therefore provide ongoing mentorship to sites trained through the initiators’ course, support them with difficult cases, and learn from them too.
And of course, we’re not stopping there. The feedback from sites involved has been amazingly positive, and we’ve got more looking to join in. So, we’re looking for funds to buy more tablets and expand to 20 sites attending in 2024.