Hi
Barry
Good
to see you too. The story of East Timor is as follows:
I
am here as an advisor (Medical Equipment Specialist) to the AusAID (80%) funded,
World Bank managed project called HSSP-SP (Health Sector Strategic Plan –
Support Project). My task is to set up a sustainable medical equipment
management and maintenance service for the country. My TOR says
...
MAJOR
OBJECTIVES
1. The capacity of the Medical Equipment
Department of the Ministry of Health is strengthened in the area of
organisational setup, capacity building, policy development and
implementation.
2. Maintenance and repair activities are
carried out for Health Posts, Community Health Centres, District Hospitals,
Referral Hospitals and the National Hospital in Dili.
3. A medical equipment
maintenance strategy and a physical assets management plan is developed for the
Ministry of Health and central, referral and facility level maintenance and
repair (M&R) workshops are established in the central, regional, district
and health facilities in the Country.
4. An essential equipment
list is developed for all levels of health facilities in the Country (with brief
specification and list of spare parts required).
5. The equipment inventory
list is updated and an appropriate equipment database is established which
includes a reporting system for medical equipment maintenance
problems.
6. Training modules for
major equipment are developed and in-country training is conducted for MoH and
facility level maintenance staff.
7. Assistance is provided
in the technical aspects of medical equipment procurement, such that
specifications and bidding documents are produced to facilitate the evaluation
of bids and the awarding of contracts.
8. Carry out equipment
inspection, testing and certification of acceptance for newly procured/donated
equipment, spare parts and consumables.
9. An orientation course
for management staff and supervisors of the health facilities is conducted on
the topics of equipment use, maintenance and repair need, inventory and
reporting systems.
10.
Assistance is provided
to the MoH and Facility In-Charge Officers in checking stored equipment and
preparing a disposal list
11.
Operation and
Maintenance Manuals are obtained, updated and maintained and training is
conducted in their application
12.
A user training
programme is developed and delivered to provide user training for all levels of
health facility in equipment care, operation, safety and infection
control.
And
there are a whole of sub-clauses under that.
To
achieve my task I have 6 BMETs who have been to Indonesia for training for 3
years to diploma level. They are located in the 6 referral hospitals around TL –
one in each. I am recruiting 2 senior BMETs from this region who need to speak
both English and Bahasa Indonesia or Tetun, as only one of the techs speaks
English. We also have 3 young technicians who have just finished their TAFE
training at Don Bosco College and are with us for 6 months for industrial
experience. We may keep some of them at the end of their training and will
probably get more in the future.
We
are moving today into our new purpose-built workshop building. 200 sq m with
electronic and mechanical workshops, office, storage area and meeting room –
equal to anything we have in Australia. We have a 4WD vehicle for outreach (we
had two but the Minister pinched one of them!) and full test equipment to do our
job.
So
we have the facility and smaller workshops around the country in the other
hospitals, we have the hand tools and test equipment and will soon have the
general workshop machinery, service aids and supplies we need as well as some
common spare parts. My technician here is very good – better than most of the
PNG or Pacific techs that I have worked with. I think the work ethic is
more Asian than Pacific and that’s a good thing. So all in all, I’m hopeful of a
good outcome. But on the other hand, I tell people that I have to do here what 5
people failed to do over six years in PNG!
As
for telemedicine, I think it could be very useful if we could somehow use the
technology to do “tele-servicing” of equipment that we don’t have much
experience with or which is highly specialised, such as ultrasound, X-ray, CT
(yes we have a CT!), etc. If we could have a service engineer at the end of a
video link and have a mobile camera that we could take pictures of screens,
circuit boards, indicator panels, etc. to illustrate the symptoms of the fault
and then get advice, shots of service manuals, direction as to where to go, etc.
– that would make our task a lot easier. Currently we firstly have to find out
who the service agent is for some of the brands that we haven’t heard of. Then
we have to make contact and get a technician who is interested and start a
process that takes many iterations.
So
“tele-servicing” would be a great benefit.
As
for the Pacific, we now have a technician in Vanuatu who is looking after
Vanuatu and Solomon Islands for the next 15 months (18 month contract and 3
months gone). We also have technicians in Nauru/Tuvalu/Kiribati and
Tonga/Samoa/Cook Is on the same deal. This is an AusAID funded project
continuing on from the Pacific MEMP programme which I directed for 7 years. It
is run under the PACTAM mechanism and administered by AVI. Unfortunately our
Nauru/Tuvalu/Kiribati engineer has resigned and gone home after 3 drunk guys
tried to rape her in the middle of the day in Tuvalu.
I
hope this information is useful for you and look forward to talking
more.
Best
wishes
Bruce.
From: Barry
Allen Prof. [mailto:Barry.Allen@SESIAHS.HEALTH.NSW.GOV.AU]
Sent:
Tuesday, 24 November, 2009 1:53 PM
To:
'bruce.morrison@mysoul.com.au'
Subject: East
Timor
Dear
Bruce
It was good to meet
you at Canberra and find out that you are working in East Timor for the
Government. Could you let me know just what you are doing and how you are doing
it.
I am running a
telemedicine workshop in Manila in July1-2. I wonder whether you would be
interested in contributing to this workshop. Are there any aspects of your
activities that could gain from a TM approach?
Regards
Barry
Prof Barry J Allen
PhD DSc
Chair
HTTTG
President
IUPESM
Past-President
IOMP
Past-President
AFOMP
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