St Andrew’s Hospital, Mtunthama
Developing Capacity and Response
St Andrew’s Hospital is one of our earliest and longest standing partners. When we first started working with them they were a small clinic serving the town, and have since developed into a busy hospital setting.
- Capital investment – buildings, facilities and equipment
- Clinical performance – investing in delivery
- Business mentoring – developing a sustainable funding model
Our objectives: support to enable delivery of fundamental healthcare in a best-practice setting.
Our strategy: working with the hospital’s Board to understand local healthcare needs and how to improve delivery of such with careful and sustainable interventions. Establishment of good business practice and efficient fiscal control.
Delivery: with a key location on the edge of Mtunthama and serving a broad geographical area, the hospital is inundated with healthcare demand. We have helped expand the facilities with new buildings in line with demand and where appropriate healthcare professionals are available to service the community adequately. X-ray capacity has been introduced and equipment such as ventilators have been repaired by simple interventions instead of costly replacement. Many Malawians do not have the ability to get to hospital so some programmes have delivered outreach work, including eye-clinics. Our emergency responses to crises such as Covid-19 and Cyclone Ana have been coordinated through the hospital.
Impact: figures for the year to March 2025 serve to illustrate the impact on the community and the improvements in service. Immunisations increased by 27%. Whilst maternity capacity has remained the same, there was an increase in deliveries, a reduction in neo-natal deaths, and a nil-rate for maternal deaths: all pointing towards improved performance and performing well against peer settings. Ultrasound services are increased and X-ray, as a new service, is very well used.
St Andrew’s remains a working partner and we respond to their applications for funding and advice on request.