Quarterly Review 3 – 2023
July, August and September 2023
Expansion:
During this quarter we supported refresher training at Sihanouk hospital Center of Hope of 2 medical doctors: 1 doctor from Operational District Choeung Prey (Kampong Cham province) and 1 from Svay Teab (Svay Rieng province). We carried out Peer Educator candidate selections in Romeas Hek (Svay Rieng), Cheung Prey and Chamkar Leu (both Kampong Cham), and in Mekong OD (Phnom Penh Municipality) for the third group-training in 2023. There were 14 candidates who began the training and 12 among them passed the final exam 5 weeks later.
The new peer educators in Cheung Prey have begun to raise awareness and register the first patients with diabetes or hypertension: primary prevention was done at 5 communes resulting in participation by 199 commune leaders. There are enough new registrations there to do the first blood- and urine collection and first medical consultation right at the start of October. The set-up of the Revolving Drug Fund and medical consultation are being prepared.
Also, we visited Boribo in Kampong Chhnang province to introduce our program and invite future counterparts to visit one of the existing peer educator networks. Boribo then went to visit Kang Meas (Kampong Cham province) as the example. It was a very welcoming and positive visit.
Official permission: As requested by new Minister of Health, H.E. Chheang Ra we submitted a report in summary with annexes for details. Also, we prepared a draft new Memorandum of Agreement with Ministry of Health 2024-2026. We received 12 out of 13 provincial support letters, approved by Governors.
Events:
In July, Global Health Students at National University of Singapore visited Cambodia to study “Health of the Poor in Asia” and also our program. Our team showed them around.
Also in July, but in Singapore during a conference about Precision Healthcare, business- and government stakeholders and Public Health experts talked about future directions and challenges using IT and AI to improve health care. Mainly experts from large multinationals but also WHO experts from Europe. The risks and opportunities of what lies ahead of us seem truly mind boggling. There is much uncertainty on how governments should regulate so it serves but also protects interests of people “without stifling the innovations”. Expect Singapore to be a place to watch but also interesting experiences from Taiwan and Portugal were presented.
On 13 September CCC held a meeting with all NGO’s on Social Protection. On 19 September Cambodian NCD Alliance united with one of our peer educators Mr. Sreng San as speaker from MoPoTsyo. It was an opportunity to voice patient concerns and point to opportunities for improving social protection. From 26-29 September a meeting was organized by WHO and MoH to discuss the draft results from the new STEP survey 2023, the 3rd such survey. The sample is much larger than the 2nd survey in 2016.
Publication of the report is expected for later this year.