Health Partnership Scheme – New Grantees Announced

THET is pleased to announce that twenty successful health partnerships have been awarded funding through the Health Partnership Scheme extension, working with a focus on sustainability, scale-up and access, running from December 2017 to December 2018.

The grants form part of the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which is a programme that funds health partnerships to carry out training and capacity-building projects in low and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. The Scheme is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by THET.

In 2010, the UK government launched the HPS which would fund institutional partnerships between UK health institutions and their counterparts in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Through this programme, 84,000 health workers in 31 countries have been trained. The programme has contributed to more effective and efficient health systems in LMICs, whilst also having a beneficial impact on the NHS, as UK staff return home with increased knowledge, improved leadership skills and a greater understanding of how to innovate in delivering healthcare with limited resources. To read more about its impact please click here.

DFID granted an extension to the HPS until February 2019 to sustain partnership momentum until a successor programme launches in 2019, as recently announced by DFID Minister of State Alistair Burt MP at THET Annual Conference 2017.  A competitive bidding process will be launched by DFID in the coming months to establish the managing partner of the successor programme.

The grants will embed health workforce capacity improvements in the health system, by attempting to make them sustainable after the project has come to an end, by scaling them up or by making them accessible to the poor, vulnerable and most marginalised groups.

A more limited number of countries for this HPS extension grant stream is based on a smaller grants budget and a need to respond to recommendations in the HPS evaluation to limit the scope of the programme in order to strengthen health partnership coordination, lessons sharing and impact. The countries selected is a representation of THET’s capacity to offer additional support at country level and DFID country priorities. THET has an office in all countries apart from Kenya and Ghana. They are included based on the number and successes of previous HPS projects in the country, as well as consultations with DFID. Projects will therefore be implemented in six countries in Africa and Asia:

• Ghana
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Kenya
• Zambia
• Myanmar

Projects will focus on a wide-range of areas, including scaling up and improving access to childhood cancer services for children in Myanmar; raising standards of care for children with epilepsy in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya by scaling up sustainable Pediatric Epilepsy Training (PET) targeted at high-level health workers; and increasing access to eye healthcare in two Ugandan health regions through an innovative outreach clinic training programme.

Uganda (9 projects)

• University of Edinburgh – Makerere University
• Nottingham Trent University – Makerere University
• University of Salford – Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS)
• East London NHS Foundation Trust – Butabika Hospital
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – Kitovu Health Care Complex
• University Hospital of South Manchester – Gulu Regional Referral Hospital
• Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) – St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor
• Royal Free Hospital – Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda
• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Kyaninga Child Development Centre (KCDC)

Myanmar (3 projects)

• Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – Yangon Children’s Hospital
• Royal College of General Practitioners – General Practitioners’ Society, Yangon
• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – University of Medicine 1 Yangon General Hospital

Zambia (3 projects)

• Anglia Ruskin School of Medicine – University Teaching Hospital (UTH)
• Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust – University Teaching Hospital Lusaka
• Birmingham City University – Lusaka College of Nursing (LCN)

Ghana (2 projects)

• Wessex Ghana Stroke Partnership – Southern Health Foundation Trust
• University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust – Ghana Health Service

Tanzania (1 project)

• Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust – Mirembe Hospital & Mirembe School of Nursing

Uganda and Tanzania (1 project)

• University of Manchester – Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union / Catholic University of Health and Allied Health Sciences

Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya (1 project)

• British Paediatric Neurology Association – Paediatric Neurology Development Association of Southern Africa (PANDA-SA)