RESPONSIBLE TO: Functionally: Project Coordinator,
Technically: Country Medical Coordinator.
WORKING WITH: Country Medical Coordinator, Project Coordinator Medical Officers and national medical staff
LOCATION: Harper, (capital town of) Maryland County, Liberia.
START DATE: January 2005
CONTRACT: To end of March with possible extension months
ALLOWANCE: £1000 - £1500 per month dependent on relevant experience. Plus comprehensive insurance cover, accommodation, return flights, a per diem to cover daily living expenses, and holiday allowance ($145 per month).
Programme background:
Mission Statement
The goal of this mission is to improve the availability and quality of health care service provision in Liberia.
Merlin Liberia: Programme Summary
Merlin has been operational in Liberia since 1997 and has developed an extensive reputation in the health sector, including support to primary level health care in five of the fifteen counties of Liberia (Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, Grand Bassa, Montserrado, and Margibi Counties). Merlin’s activities include medical and logistical support to the County Health Team, capacity building of MoH staff, and supervision of health facilities to ensure quality of care. Currently, Merlin supports PHC clinics in Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, Grand Bassa, Montserrado and Margibi, including providing clinic services in five IDP camps. The programme also includes support to the government referral hospitals in Buchanan, where secondary and emergency care services were re-established in 2003. Recently, Merlin responded to a cholera outbreak in Maryland County, rehabilitating parts of the hospital in Harper in order to set up a cholera treatment unit.
Merlin aims to continue to provide healthcare for IDPs and the war-affected population of Monrovia, as well as support resident populations in insecure areas of the south-eastern region of Liberia, until the return process of IDPs and returnees has been fully implemented, and the healthcare structures of the south-east region are re-established. Please refer to Merlin’s website for further information on Merlin’s past and current programmes in Liberia.
Strategy
Although immediate interventions in Liberia have centred around provision of emergency aid to the war affected in Monrovia, Merlin is now looking to expand its scope of intervention as many IDPs and refugees return to their homes outside the capital. Merlin’s strategy now is to once again concentrate its assistance on health activities and hand over non-health activities to other INGO partners as appropriate.
Maryland Project
Merlin’s interventions in Maryland country started a few months ago in response to the lack of health care available there. From an emergency intervention in the county hospital to establish a cholera ward, Merlin is now establishing a programme to re-habilitate and re-establish a functioning secondary referal hospital.
This post will invovle supervising all aspects of the hospital from advising on management and administration to assiting with surgery and clincial inputs, capacity building techncial staff and supervising a PHC component of the project, at a later stage in conjunctuion with an expatriate PHC superviser.
The post holder will have overall techncial responsibility for the Maryland project.
Responsibilities
Leadership
- Coordinate and functionally manage the planning and direction of Merlin’s health activities at project level.
- Develop and maintain a coherent project strategy fulfiling Merlin’s aims in collaboration with the Project Coordinator.
- Determine project direction in consultation with the Project Coordinator and Country Management Team
- Create a shared vision among all Merlin health staff related to project aims and their role in achieving these.
Programme Support
- Provide technical and mangerial support to all health team members in fulfilment of their duties according to project objectives.
- Provide technical support to existing hospital staff to respond to patient load and pathologies(Conduct ward rounds, attend patients refered to you by physician assistants and perform emergency operations).
- Develop, plan and implement project medical activities in close collaboration with medical and non-medical personnel, ensuring coherence between activities and contigencies for changes in project direction and priorities related to the humanitarian context.
- Prepare the project medical protocols and data collection forms in collaboration with local health represenatives and ensure the team is fully conversant with and trained in the same.
- Responsible with the Programme Coordinator for encouraging the community participation in health activities to ensure the long term ownership and effectiveness of the programme.
- Ensure all medical staff receive appropraite training to ensure the maximum use of their skills and their full and effective participation in medical activities.
- Ensure health activities are implemented in accordance with Merlin policy and inter/nationally recognised standards.
- Ensure that the medical stocks are properly managed in collaboration with logistics staff.
- Responsible for the timely preparation and approval of all medical orders.
Programme Development
- Constantly monitor the health and humanitarian situation in the project area and propose appropriate action in collaboration with the Project Coordinator and Country Medical Coordinator.
- Undertake/ assist needs assessment as necessary.
- Prepare and write timely and accurate donor proposals and reports in collaboration with the Project Co-ordinator. These documents should reflect progress against set objectives and/or newly defined needs supported by appropriate data presentation and contextual analysis.
- Prepare and write timely and accurate monthly medical activity reports for inclusion in the monthly situation report submitted to Merlin HQ.
- Support the Project Coordinator with in negotiating new / changes to project activities with local health authorities.
Co-ordination & Representation
- Co-ordinate and represent Merlin to local health authorities at district level to ensure all project activities are carried out with their collaboration and participation or order to achieve project objectives.
- Co-ordinate and represent Merlin to WHO, UNICEF, and other I/NGOs to avoid project activity overlap whilst sufficiently addressing the full needs of the communities
- Ensure key stakeholders receive regular activity reports and statistics.
Staff Management / HR
- Line manage health staff effectively, using appropriate delegation
- Monitor health staff performance through regular appraisal
- Recruit Merlin national medical staff including the development of clear job description.
- Enhance technical and health management skills of national health staff through formal & informal training in conjunction with international medical officers.
Staff Health
- Responsible for international staff health in the field (although this is the overall responsibility of the Country Medical Coordinator) and well-being as outlined in Merlin Staff Health Policy.
- Ensure up-to-date medical evacuation procedures are in place (with the Country Medical Coordinator) at all times and that staff are aware of their respective roles.
Specific tasks
- Participation in Medical department review and assessment, and forward planning
- Participate in needs assessment to establish future medical programs
- Awareness of Merlin’s Medical emergency preparedness plan and your specific role within it
- Continuous on-the-job training to MoH medical staff supporting program sustainability aims
- Supervision and monitoring of staff and activities at the hospital
- Assessment of needs of local and displaced population,
- Institution of public health,
- Preventive and curative services to a good standard
- Ongoing logistic and clinical support including evaluation of patients for referral to secondary care facilities.
- Any other reasonable task or role required by program needs
Activities
- Ensure medical practice is consistent with Merlin’s mandate and that it falls in line with Merlin and MoH’s memorandum of understanding.
- Assist in defining roles and responsibilities of clinic health staff, and assist in performance evaluation
- Ensure that all staff work in accordance with MoH case definitions, treatment guidelines and rational drug use
- Identify training needs of staff
- Planning and implementation of informal and formal training on a wide variety of issues such as diagnosis and treatment protocols, rational prescription, universal precautions, pharmacy management, cold chain management, MCH activities, etc. Training of laboratory technicians will also be necessary.
- Establish networks of community workers to help plan priorities and disseminate health information
- Design public health awareness campaigns and institute their use.
- Expansion of clinical activities to new and underserved areas
- Development of programs in MCH, EPI, nutritional support and curative care.
- Establishment and management of basic referral system
- Support to disease outbreak response where necessary
- When necessary, support clinic OICs in their running of the clinic. In order to establish counter referral system.
- Ensure that all medical records and reports are accurate.
- Ensure that epidemiological data and drug consumption data corresponds appropriately
- Ensure that epidemiological reports on paper or disc are sent to Monrovia monthly or as required
- Preparation and submission of working plans when required
- As Merlin is working in a constantly changing humanitarian aid environment, reasonable specific work duties may be requested that may not fit into the above job description, but which will help promote over all programs goals and aims.
Other
- Carry out any other responsiblities as requested by the Project Co-ordinator or Country medical Co-ordinator.
- Produce written end of post handover notes.
Personal/Professional Requirements
Essential
- Qualified doctor with at least two years post qualification experience including surgery
- Qualification in tropical medicine and/or public health.
- Good clinical and surgical skills.
- Excellent management and personnel skills to enable the motivation, encouragement and participation of international and national health team members
- Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with local health representatives.
- Flexibility towards treatment protocols and ability to incorporate advice from the medical team when developing the same.
- Ability to assess medical conditions quickly and calmly under pressure as required.
- Excellent communication skills, with good spoken and written English
- Good computer skills to allow reporting and representation.
- Experience in epidemiological analysis including data representation and basic survey techniques
Advantageous
- Previous experience within a humanitarian aid organisation.
- Previous experience within the region
- Excellent computer skills to allow reporting and representation.
- Ability to remain calm and to be diplomatic, both with the local health authorities and with the community.
- Good organisational skills.
Please note that this is an unaccompanied position.
Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be shortlisted on a regular basis and we may offer this post before the closing date. Please note, on submitting your application, you are agreeing to Merlin holding and using the information that you have given for the purposes of recruitment and employment – should an offer be made. In order to process your job application, it may be necessary for your CV to be sent to the Country Manager (in the country you are applying for) for consideration. If you do not agree with this, please can you state so when applying.
