The goal of the Chenla Children's Healthcare is to deliver holistic care and clinical outreach to surrounding communities by providing patient services to children in need, improving the infrastructure and health systems of the province, and improve health worker education in eastern Cambodia. Chenla works alongside the local government, and operates as part of the provincial hospital rather than as a parallel structure, thus ensuring long-term sustainability.
The Chenla Children's Healthcare is a paediatric hospital located inside of Kratie Provincial Hospital, a government-run facility in eastern Cambodia. Almost all of the staff are Cambodians who provide both inpatient and outpatient services including a Neonatal and Paediatric ICU. The staff also coordinate medical outreach activities to the eastern (and poorest) part of Cambodia.
Image taken from Google Maps
Since 2017, doctors from the Departments of Paediatric Medicine and Neonatology of the Khoo Teck Puat - National University Children’s Medical Institute (KTP-NUCMI) have been going to Chenla Children’s Healthcare to partner with local doctors and provide care for the children of Kratie province. The Chenla Children’s Healthcare has just rebuilt a paediatric centre in rural Kratie which carries the largest paediatric healthcare challenges in Cambodia.
Dr William Housworth, who leads the efforts at the centre, had previously worked with the NUH Department of Neonatology to implement the Neonatology Service. With the success of previous collaborations, NUH has been asked to take an active role in similar capacity building and service provision to the very young paediatric centre.
Professor Roy Joseph, one of KTP-NUCMI’s most senior doctors, was one of the first NUH doctors to visit Chenla, braving the six-hour car ride on dirt roads to arrive in Kratie. KTP-NUCMI volunteers held a weekend workshop for doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants from the province and surrounding villages. The neonatal needs are great as the hospital sees approximately 60 neonatal admissions in a month. This remains an area for large potential influence. According to published statistics, 1 in 24 children in eastern Cambodia die before their 5th birthday, mostly from preventable to treatable causes.
How you can make a difference
Since the trips to Chenla have been regular, the friendships forged have grown over the years, which further reinforces the strength and length of our impact. We hope to continue to support the children in Chenla through our regular visits and continue to help provide patient services to children in need.
Your generous support for the mission will go a long way to make a difference to Chenla Children’s Healthcare. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Activities
The Paediatricians’ and residents’ activities in Cambodia comprise largely of on-the-job learning opportunities, working alongside the local doctors and allied health providers in their daily ward rounds or clinic work. The “apprenticeship” model of training also includes ‘classroom’ sessions, with local doctors directing the emphasis of their learning. Occasionally, by providing an “outside looking in” view, we are able to discuss how differences in practice and/or systems may contribute to outcomes.
The benefits have been bidirectional. Our doctors gained exposure to a larger number of patients with later presentations, especially in infectious or febrile illnesses, premature birth and/or accidents/poisonings. Our volunteers also learn from the tenacity and resourcefulness of patients, their families, and the local staff.
Approximately 70 Cambodian Healthcare workers (HCWs), comprising medical doctors (5%), health assistants (35%), midwives (20%) and nurses (40%) from Chenla Children's Healthcare (linked to the provincial hospital), district hospitals, satellite clinics as far as six hours away, and from across the Mekong River (close to the Cambodia-Vietnam border) attended the Newborn/Neonatology Course conducted by the KTP-NUCMI volunteers.
The KTP-NUCMI volunteers did ward rounds with the local paediatricians on the existing inpatients (approximately 10 at that time), carried out discussions to aid their independent decision-making and during one of the visits, actively stood by for a resuscitation of one sick baby.
Over meals with the local staff, our KTP-NUCMI volunteers explored the needs of the existing Paediatric Service in Chenla in an attempt to create new framework for further collaboration in service provision, capacity building, education and laid out some plans for future collaboration.
Potential plans include another visit by the NUH team to run clinics and provide supervision at ward rounds.
