Myanmar
Decades of civil war and military rule have had a devastating impact on Myanmar’s healthcare system, greatly impacting people’s ability to access quality health services.
Organisational Update
The developments in Myanmar have caused us great concern, and we have been working to understand the impact on our staff there and on our work. We are pleased to say that staff members are currently safe and well, and we sincerely hope that you and your colleagues are also safe.
We have established a regular communication with our Myanmar team to track any changes or developments. In the meantime, we anticipate that programmatic activity with Myanmar stakeholders may be postponed. However, where it is possible, background programme activity will continue.
Since 2014, we have been working to improve child and newborn health in Myanmar by supporting a partnership between the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Myanmar Paediatric Society.
Despite the chronic need for improved child and newborn services, Myanmar’s health system’s struggles reach far beyond paediatrics. After seventy years of neglect under a military dictatorship, the country is facing staff worker shortages and outdated curriculum and equipment.
Through our office in Yangon, which opened in early 2017, we are working with national and local stakeholders to support the strengthening of health systems in Myanmar.
Before 2021, we supported two Health Partnerships in Myanmar, between the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the University of Medicine, and Addenbrooke’s Abroad (Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Yangon General Hospital.
Saving Mothers at Delivery
August 2023 – July 2024
The project, funded by Johnson & Johnson Foundation Scotland, is a training programme in collaboration with the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (WFSA) and NHS obstetrician volunteers from Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust, to provide multi-professional team-based training and basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC) training at health facilities in Myanmar.
The vision of this project is that health facilities in Myanmar become safer places for mothers to undergo emergency procedures related to delivery, and that mortality and morbidity arising from these procedures are minimised.
Health Partnerships for Myanmar
Since the military coup in Myanmar on 1st February 2021, health professionals involved in Health Partnerships between the UK and Myanmar have come together to support colleagues on the frontline of the response.
Guided by the principles of medical neutrality, more than 50 organisations are involved in activities across four areas:
- Medical education.
- Quality improvement.
- Communications and advocacy.
- Fundraising.
To find out more about the work we have been undertaking, please click here.
Myanmar UK Health Alliance (MUKHA)
Myanmar and the UK share close links in the field of health education and training through the work of numerous organisations and partnerships.
The MUKHA was established in October 2016 to enhance the coordination, collaboration and sustainability of activities from Myanmar-UK partnerships. In response to the coup, MUKHA facilitated fortnightly meetings with the wider UK Health Partnership community as well as directly engaging with UK NHS, international diaspora, and colleagues in Myanmar in an effort to improve coordination, reduce duplication of efforts and respond to the needs identified by health professionals in Myanmar.
For additional information on THET’s work in Myanmar, please contact our Programmes Manager, Kat Brassington.
In Myanmar we proudly partner with:
- Health workers (nurses, GPs, specialists) on the ground across Myanmar, including ethnic health organisations.
- Health Education England.
- Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
- Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh.
- Cambridge Global Health Partnerships.
- Imperial College London.
- Royal College of GPs.
- Thames Valley and Wessex Leadership Academy.
- Royal College of Physicians.
- Johnson and Jonhson.
- World Federation for Safe Anesthesia (WFSA).
- Health Education Support Group (HESG).
