Technical adviser - quality of medical care and services in Tanzania

VSO, the world's leading independent international development organisation brings people together to fight poverty, is looking for a qualified doctor for a 12-36 month volunteer placement in Tanzania.

Background The St. Francis Referral Hospital (SFRH) is located in Ifakara, Southern Tanzania and has a capacity of 400 beds and attracts approximately 700,000 referral patients per year from Kilombero and other neighbouring districts. The hospital is connected historically and operationally to a number of other health institutions. All the local partner institutions depend on each other in order to be able to act as a platform for health care, training and research. Through the support of volunteers there is real potential to strengthen Ifakara as a centre of excellence in healthcare, training and research.

In order to allow the hospital to fulfill its role as a regional referral and teaching hospital, quality of services need to be improved through better infrastructure, strengthening of the financial and human resource management and by ensuring availability of qualified staff, equipment and drugs. Swiss Development Cooperation and VSO are supporting the SFRH to improve its quality of healthcare services in a sustainable way by offering accessible and affordable quality services to the population and providing excellent training and research opportunities to the local partner institutions. Based in the hospital as the Technical Advisor for Quality of Care and Services you will work closely with the Medical Director, Head of Nursing and heads of all other departments in the hospital to improve quality of medical care and services.

What does the role involve?

• Providing support to the Medical Director on all clinical services in the hospital in an advisory capacity • Supporting the hospital management team on collaboration with partners in provision of care in the hospital • Providing support for department heads to set up a quality assurance system for clinical services
• Strengthening departmental leadership to offer quality services, mentorship of junior doctors and supervision of students
• Facilitate the development of treatment guidelines for each main clinical department • Facilitate regular workshops for continued education to all care providers • Support department heads in improving data collection systems in their areas of work • Establish systems to monitor progress indicators and to report improvements • Support in monitoring and analyzing the progress indicators in the hospital.

Skills, qualifications and experience required

You can apply for this role if you are a qualified doctor with 5-10 years of medical experience especially in hospital quality care and service improvement. You will have experience in hospital management, training and tropical medicine. It is desirable but not essential to have worked in Africa. You will need to be available for the period of project life cycle 3 years or a minimum of 2 years. We are looking for someone who is a team worker with good social and interpersonal skills and networking abilities. You should be able to handle conflicts in a constructive consultative way and have a flexible personality, adapting easily to new situations, and being able to set realistic expectations on working in a hospital in the tropics.

And the rest....

Ifakara in the south of Tanzania is an authentic savannah grassland area that is green during the rainy season and brown in the dry season. Daytime temperatures vary between 32-39 degrees Celsius throughout the year. Southern Tanzania is home to some of Africa's best national parks and game reserves. There is some good hiking around Mbeya, the largest town in the southwest, but it's the country's two largest parks, Ruaha National Park and Selous Game Reserve that provide the most awe-inspiring encounters with lions, elephants and wildebeests. Mikumi is a smaller national park, but its proximity to Dar es Salaam makes it handy for those without the time for the full safari but who still want to see some wildlife. While on placement, we’ll ask you to commit to 12-36 months to make a sustainable contribution. In return, we’ll give you comprehensive financial, personal and professional support. We'll provide you with extensive training including language classes before your placement, and our financial package includes a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation, insurance and more. When you return to your home country, we'll support you to resettle.

How to apply:

To find out more about volunteering with VSO visit www.vso.org.uk or to apply go tohttp://www.vso.org.uk/volunteer/ and quote T0785/0003/0001 on your application. On average it takes a minimum of 4 months to go through the application process so apply now for departure as soon as possible.