Purpose of the Consultancy

The consultant will provide technical supports to the Ministry of Health (MoH), Royal Government of Cambodia, on efforts to improve the quality and safety of maternal and newborn health care services, particularly support development of national patient safety policy and strategy action plan for Cambodia and strengthening comprehensive quality improvement and service delivery network for maternal and newborn services, including strengthening Infection Prevention and control (IPC) in line with the process of updating the hospital Complementary Package Activities (CPA) and priority Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs).

The consultant will work with the Ministry of Health, Departments of Hospital Services (DHS), and National Maternal and Child Health Center relevant MoH departments, national programs, development partners and with WHO Regional Office.

Background

Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people have access to the quality health services the need, without facing financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care across the life course.

Quality of service provision is therefore core to UHC^[1]. Health services with poor quality and perceived unsafe to use, even if made available in front of the door and at an affordable fee are often considered as a barrier to achieving UHC. People will not use services that they do not trust and perceive least benefit to them, or even worse and harmful. Providing poor quality services wastes valuable resources that can be invested in other important drivers of social and economic development to improve lives of population^[2].

Annually, many patients are harmed or die because of unsafe health care, resulting a high burden of death and disability worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. On average, an estimated one in 10 patients is subject to an adverse event while receiving hospital care in high-income countries. Available evidence suggests that 134 million adverse events due to unsafe care occur in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to around 2.6 million deaths per year. According to recent estimates, the social cost of patient harm can be valued at US$ 1 trillion to 2 trillion a year^[3].

Quality care in Maternal and newborn care is another focus. Cambodia has achieved rapid reduction of neonatal mortality and rapid increase in facility delivery (97.5% in DHS 2021-2022), and yet, high maternal mortality ratio of 154 per 100,000 live births. Improving quality of maternal and newborn care is priority area of work of the government and WHO has been collaborating with the MoH.

MoH Cambodia also emphasize importance of improving quality of coordinated care in emergency, surgery, critical care and IPC. MoH and WHO have been collaborating on improving sterilization quality and surgical site infection prevention.

Deliverables

Under the supervision of the Health System Coordinator, WHO Country Office of Cambodia and in collaboration with the National Maternal and Child Health Center MoH, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Output 1: Provide key evidence inputs for decision making on the scope of patient safety policy/strategy development, and process of development.
Deliverable 1.1: Reviewing and mapping all existing national policies, strategies, guideline, and SOP related QI, IPC, and patient safety.
Deliverable 1.2: Consolidate evidence, recommendation, and suggested indicators related patient safety.
Deliverable 1.3: Provide the key finding from situation analysis of QI, IPC, and patient safety initiatives in Cambodia, what has been working and what need to be further improved.

Output 2: Develop the draft national patient safety policy/strategy for stakeholder consultative meeting.
Deliverable 2.1: Provide technical support in drafting national patient safety policy/strategy.
Deliverable 2.2: Facilitate and engage in consultative meetings and workshops as per request by DHS and the Working Groups to collect inputs for the drafting.
Deliverable 2.3: Support health system team in areas of QI such maternal and child health, IPC, referral guideline, safe and affordable surgery, sterilization, antimicrobial resistance stewardship.

Output 3: Demonstration of comprehensive quality improvement and service delivery network for maternal and newborn services in selected district conducted.
Deliverable 3.1: a series of meetings and planning with key stakeholders including NMCHC, DHS conducted to plan and prepare for start of demonstration of comprehensive quality improvement and service delivery network for maternal and newborn service in selected district.
Deliverable 3.2: Data dashboard for regular monitoring health care and planning of health quality and response action at selected facilities has been introduced.
Deliverable 3.3: A series of meeting at selected district (district hospital and HCs under catchment area) conducted to strengthen care network (including referral and remote consultation).
Deliverable 3.4: A series of meetings in the selected facilities conducted to enhance leadership skills and governance in quality improvement.

Output 4: Assist the HSD team in technical report writing, monthly report of monthly deliverables including translations between English and Khmer where necessary.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications:

Essential: University degree in public health or health science
Desirable: Postgraduate degree in hospital administration, health service management, health policy and planning, or related field is an advantage.

Experience required:

Essential: Minimum 5 years working experience in health system strengthening, quality and safety improvement and initiatives, IPC in Cambodia.
Experiences in development of national quality and safety policy, strategy, and guideline and SOP including IPC is an advantage.

Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

Good understanding of service delivery system and structure of health care facilities in Cambodia.
Project planning and management skills including development and monitoring of plans and coordinating across numbers of working groups
Previous experience in evidence gathering and use for clinical practice / service delivery management
Highly developed computer skills including use of Microsoft Office suite of programs and tools (Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook)
Strong language and communication skills in English and Khmer both oral and written including for technical reporting and presentations

Language requirements:

Good oral and written English language skill.

Location

On site: WHO Cambodia Country Office and Ministry of Health

Travel

The Consultant is expected to travel according to the itinerary and estimated schedule below: Six trip of 5 working days (1 trip per month) to selected district (TBC).

Remuneration and budget

Remuneration:  TBD

Additional Information

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^{[1] Universal Health Coverage: Moving Towards Better Health – Action Framework for the Western Pacific Region
[2] Delivering quality health services: a global imperative for universal health coverage. Geneva: World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and The World Bank; 2018. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
[3] Global patient safety action plan 2021–2030: towards eliminating avoidable harm in health care. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.}