News & Events
12 March 2011
Introducing The Hope Report
Access to health care – hospitals, clinics, medical practitioners and specialist treatment - is sometimes taken for granted in developed countries. But for the people of our near neighbour Timor-Leste (East Timor) the situation is very different.
Curable and treatable diseases are among the leading causes of death in Timor-Leste. Even having a baby can be a death sentence; the country has high infant and mother mortality rates. Available medical services have major gaps, and only limited secondary care facilities exist for life threatening conditions. There is not much access to essential care for many medical illnesses, limited orthopaedic or eye surgery or specialist care for serious heart conditions, burns and congenital deformities or infectious diseases.
But a dedicated group of medicos, led by general practitioner Dr Chris Fenton and cardiothoracic surgeon Associate Professor Andrew Cochrane, is committed to changing this grim picture. Their goal is to establish The Hospital of Hope near Dili and bring medical and nursing services to add to and augment those currently supplied by the Timor-Leste Government.
Month by month The Hope Report will bring you news, updates and heartening stories about this inspirational program. Welcome to the first issue…
Click here to read The Hope Reports
10 March 2011
Partners in the spotlight
Smiles all around as surgical team comes to town
The Hospital of Hope has partnerships with a number of respected professional bodies to deliver our services in Timor-Leste. In this issue, plastic and craniofacial surgeon Dr Mark Moore AM FRACS reports on his visit ‘in country’, representing our partners the Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia (OSSAA).
In the ten years since his first visit to Timor-Leste, Dr Moore and his team of volunteers have conducted hundreds of operations, including correcting congenital deformities like cleft lips and palates and managing severe physical disabilities caused by serious burns.
“Our main aims for this, our 27th visit, were to run our ongoing plastic and reconstructive surgical clinical service and to expand our active role as teachers and trainers of our local colleagues, who include a surgical trainee, Dr Joao Ximenes, and anaesthetic nursing staff.
 |
| Dr Joao & Mateus operating |
During the visit we operated clinics at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadarein HNVD) in Dili and Baucau Regional Hospital, with additional outpatient clinics at different locations. It is a real challenge to work in these major hospitals for a week, undertaking numerous cases, and requires a high level of commitment from our local medical, surgical and administrative contacts, which we continue to work towards.
By the end of our 4 days of clinics, our team had seen 42 patients, operated on 33 of them, performing 35 procedures. As experienced in previous visits, cleft lips and palates remain the major problem and we performed 24 cleft procedures, mostly new primary surgery.
 |
| The group at Baucau Hospital |
To my mind, the highlight of the whole trip was that Dr Joao Ximenes performed 8 of these procedures, 4 completely on his own, with results equal to those of the visiting surgical teams.”
Dr Mark Moore AM, FRACS
Plastic and Craniofacial Surgeon
7 March 2011
Stepping up to Hope
From its beginnings in 2006, to the signing of the important agreement with the Timor-Leste Government in 2011, the Hospital of Hope project has gathered momentum, achieving a number of vital milestones, building a dedicated supporter base and moving closer to achieving the dream…
Dr Chris Fenton, learning of their plight and the collapse of the country's health system post-independence, dreams of improved health care for all of the people of Timor-Leste.
He teams up with Associate Professor Andrew Cochrane, a cardiothoracic surgeon who has participated in many surgical missions to Timor-Leste.
Chris and Andrew commit substantial personal funds to establish and support the development of the Hospital of Hope project.
Support for the project received from:
- the Timor-Leste Government
- the Timor-Leste Medical Association
- Australian medical practitioners and peak professional bodies
- individuals with medical, business or expertise in other relevant professions, to form the Board and implementation teams
- Australian Government agencies, including the current Ambassador to Timor-Leste
2007 - 2010
Flinders University's Darwin campus commits to train medical, nursing and allied health staff from Timor-Leste.
Royal Darwin Hospital's National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre agree to provide links with Timor-Leste health community and deliver courses in trauma and mass casualty response for HoH staff and Timor-Leste health professionals
Hospital of Hope establishes partnerships with major professional bodies to deliver services
• Cardio Thoracic Surgery
- Sydney Adventist Hospital
- The Queensland Cardiovascular Group
• Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Outreach
- Brisbane Orthopaedic Specialist Services
• Plastic Surgery
- Overseas Surgical Specialists of Australia
- Operation Smile
• Eye surgery
- East Timor Eye Program
• Infectious Diseases Management
- Australian Society for Infectious Diseases
HoH Board of Directors appointed, each Director with extensive experience and expertise relevant to the success of the project.
Commitments to provide other support
- Nursing care
- Pharmaceutical companies –drugs and hospital consumables
- Ancillary services – hospital administration, management, clinical software
- Humpty Dumpty Foundation
Pro bono support
Legal - Clayton Utz
Audit - PricewaterhouseCoopers
Business strategy - LEK Consulting
Plus a number of experienced professionals have committed to assist with AusAid/Overseas aid gift deductibility, commercial, corporate and corporate affairs, construction and project management, financial and medical
 |
| Joe Cato, His Excellency Jose Ramos Horta and Dr Chris Fenton meeting in Dli, Timor-Leste in 2010 |
2011
The Timor-Leste Government signs an important Memorandum of Understanding with HoH, providing for:
- a long-term lease at nominal rent for the old Portuguese Hospital site at Lehane in Dili
- exemption from customs and excise duties on goods imported to build the hospital and on medical supplies
- emergency access to HoH for expatriates and tourists
As part of the agreement, HoH medical services will complement, not duplicate services presently supplied by the Timor-Leste Government, and any trained staff employed as a result of the expansion of medical and nursing services will not be hired away from the existing Timor-Leste hospital system.
4 March 2011
Been there, done that…
Hospital of Hope people are very good at making the most of their time when working in Timor-Leste. Activities like making new contacts, renewing established relationships and holding discussions with the people who can help bring our dream to reality effectively keep our wheels turning.
In this issue we hear from two of our dedicated supporters. HoH's construction adviser, civil engineer Joe Cato visited the proposed site of the hospital in Lehane, Dili and took the opportunity to hold discussions with a number of people whose influence and assistance are vital to the cause.
HoH Board Member and infectious diseases specialist, Associate Professor Clare Nourse, who is responsible for HoH's medical strategy development, not only conducted a number of rural health clinics during her visit, but also managed to establish relationships with key members of health facilities in Timor to explore the best ways of supporting health in the context of HOH.
Joe Cato:
"The key aims of my trip were to investigate the Lahane site from an engineering perspective and make contact with consultants and contractors who can potentially help us deliver the completed hospital.
"We also met with Timor-Leste's President José Ramos-Horta, the Australian Ambassador Peter Heyward, and a number of senior government advisers. We came away from our meeting with the President feeling like we had a tremendous supporter for the project.
"We conducted a comprehensive inspection of the site, including the buildings. Confirming it was suitable from a construction point of view, we were also able to determine with some degree of confidence what existing buildings could be retained and which would need to be demolished.
"Discussions with an architect and several local building contractors gave us a fix on the current capabilities of the construction industry in Dili as well as contacts for possible involvement in the project at a later date.
"The visit's main achievement was being able to produce a preliminary cost analysis for the construction and reconstruction of the proposed hospital.
"Our meetings also gave us the names of possible financial benefactors for the project – good news all round!"
Clare Nourse:
"My 'To-do in Timor-Leste List' for this trip included:
- providing direct medical care to patients in health clinics in five remote rural villages in the Ermera district
-meeting representatives of local health care organisations HIAM Health and Alola, to assess their potential and suitability for collaboration with HoH
-participating in a ward round with Dr Dan Murphy at the Bairo Pite Clinic, and
-meeting with Peter Heyward, the Australian Ambassador.
"Conducting the clinics again highlighted a grim picture. Villagers throughout the area are generally malnourished, underweight and short. Many patients complained of muscle ache, possibly related to hard physical work picking and carrying coffee. Many have a cough, some from viral illness, some from bacterial pneumonia, but in many cases tuberculosis is the cause."We saw many cases of skin diseases like scabies, impetigo and boils. A number of patients were likely sufferers of congenital heart disease. We also saw examples of other congenital abnormalities such as eyelid malfunction. The sad reality is there is no referral centre where these patients can receive specialist treatment.
"Availability of medication is another challenge, with basic items like appropriate antibiotics and scabies cream either not available or in very short supply. Yet we saw large cardboard boxes of other medications with varying expiry dates and varying doses and formulations.
"There is also a need to improve patient transport from their villages to regional hospitals or Dili. Utes, neither clean nor comfortable, are currently the main mode for getting sick and injured people to hospital.
"We offered a number of suggestions for the health clinics. Regular cleaning and making the beds with clean sheets (available in drawers, but not regularly used) would certainly be an improvement. Ideally, medications would be stocked alphabetically in an inventory. Then government supplies could be ordered when stocks run low. Family patient files would be kept; one file per patient but filed according to family, so a mother could be asked about all family members when she attends.
"Implementing home visits again is desirable, so the most vulnerable families can be checked on and patients like two seen this visit followed up. One patient was coughing blood, likely to have TB, but reluctant to visit Dili for treatment because they would lose coffee money and a young baby with pneumonia had been given antibiotics but needed to be checked in a couple of days.
"The key to putting these suggestions in place is an enthusiastic and committed health care worker at the clinics.
"Our meetings with other health care organisations proved valuable.
"HIAM Health has an excellent facility in Dili, comfortably housing 16 babies and families for a period of nutrition education. As well as bedrooms, its amenities include a kitchen garden, a fully equipped kitchen and a communal area, so mothers can learn about growing food, cooking appropriately and administering to children. Currently all referrals to the Centre must come from Dili General Hospital, or at least assessed there, to exclude cases with TB or parasites. Since referrals cannot be made directly from villages, referrals are slow to come to the Centre.
"The Alola Foundation's Maternal and Child Health Program aims to improve the health of mothers and children in villages, with particular emphasis on improving obstetric and perinatal outcomes. They provide training on vital subjects like infant and child feeding and maternal nutrition, safe motherhood and family planning. They also have an intervention where a health care worker visits the village regularly through the year, to educate villagers about maternal and child health.
"As I see it, working hand-in-hand with local health care organisations will be a key part of the way HoH operates, particularly in offering training and mentoring for their staff and specialist treatment for their patients."
1 March 2011
A heart-warming story about the wonderful work our medical partners do…
16th June 2009
It's been a while since the last newsletter. Progress towards the realisation of the Hospital of Hope is gaining momentum and support. There has been much work contributed since the last update in February.and still so much to do!
Steve Bracks
Steve Bracks has undertaken to make the introduction to the Federal DFAT Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for us when the time comes.
Peter McMullin
Peter is the President of Vecci has indicated that Vecci will support Hospital of Hope.
Fundraising
Chris Fenton & Natalie O'Dea have been busy conducting feasibility interviews. The responses so far have been overwhelmingly positive, with many intelligent, strategic and useful suggestions & contacts made to progress the Hospital further.
Interviews conducted to date:
1. Tom Uren - ex Labour politician and WWII veteran
2. Arun Abey-Co-founder ipac, Strategic Head AXA, Director,The Smith Family
3. Abel Guterres - Consul General, Timor-Lest e
4. John Schubert - Chairman Commonwealth Bank
5. Stuart Rees - Professor University of Sydney, Director Sydney Peace Foundation
6. Jack Boorne - Consultant, Trustee eMerge Foundation Timor-Leste
7. Jennine Leonarder-Collins - M.D., Leonarder Collins Luxury Homes
Belinda Lawton - National Media & Communications Royal Life Saving
8. Fred Nadja rian - Managing Director, Roche Products, Asia Pacific
9. Heather & Richard Penn - The Penn Foundation
10. Steve Higgs-Venture Capitalist-Chair, Juvenile Diabetes Research
Foundation-Sage advice and great referrals
The remainder of the interviews will be conducted throughout June, with the final feasibility report completed by mid July.
Dr Zoe Wainer, cardiothoracic registrar and Vice President of the Victorian AMA, is putting together a team of internet savvy doctors to work on a website that will be a useful tool for fundraising. Zoe is also arranging meetings with other well known medical figures with a view to their involvement and meetings at Flinders University.
Chris is meeting with the CEO of Woodside in Perth on the 23 rd of July. The aim of this meeting is to make an impact on them concerning the potential benefits to them of supporting the HOH project in a major way and to commence an important and longstanding relationship with them. Woodside, being the only Australian owned oil company in the Timor region, is the most likely of the oil companies to respond to this initiative.
Donations and Assistance
Richard and Heather Penn have very kindly donated $10,000.00 to assist with Head Office expenses at present and reaffirmed they are very happy for us to continue to use their offices at Level 1/65 Walker St., North Sydney as our Registered Office and to hold meetings there. Their PA, Kristina McIntosh can also assist us as necessary.
We are currently corresponding with the Digicel Foundation re their possible support. Digicel is commencing a telecommunications service in T-L to compete against the former monopoly of Timor Telecom, the most expensive Telecom service in the world. Digicel commences an in country foundation wherever it goes and is backed by the wealth of Europe's richest man, the owner of Digicel, Denis O'Brien.
We are also pursuing the International Aid Funds. This is a complex and political process but we are in for the long haul there. Chris had meetings on his last visit to Dili with some of these funds and the Minister of Finance through whom funding decisions from the major funds go and he will engage further with these parties on his next trip.
Partnerships
Chris had an excellent meeting with Orthopaedic Outreach's Management Committee - they have offered their full support to the Hospital and formalised this in a letter of support and are happy to be part of the Medical Advisory Committee.
We are delighted that Christina Hardy has secured Price Water House Coopers as our auditors on a pro bono basis. Now we have an auditor secured, we can proceed with our registration as a Charity.
Andrew & Chris also attending a second Rotary meeting in Melbourne on 29 th April which led to offers of assistance in various ways including endorsement as an official Rotary project to be organised by Stephen Ralph and George from Zedlaw, introductions by Bob Glindemann to Shell and some fundraising approaches to various bodies and some possible fundraising functions.
Andrew Cochrane attended a Timor-Leste VECCI meeting in Melbourne. We have requested VECCI endorsement of the project .
Chris Fenton has joined the Committee of the ATLBC-The Australia Timor-Leste Business Council.
The Oncology/Thoracic unit of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, through Zoe Wainer, have indicated strong interest in being involved in Thoracic and Oncological care in the Hospital.
Following our meeting with Roche we can look forward to a developing Partnership there with the MD expressing an initial willingness to supply all appropriate medications for free and further offers are in the wind. Well done Roche!
Federal Government Pitch
We are aiming to present to the Federal Government in August. Specifically we will be presenting to Senator Bob McMullan and possibly the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith. This will be a multipronged approach with particularly Christina Hardy and Claire Clelland working on our presentation and the lead up to that. Claire Clelland has prepared a working document which will be further refined. Thanks Claire.
Obviously commitments from the private sector such as Woodside would add greatly to the likelihood of success with the Federal Government.
Other News
We are thrilled to welcome Heather Kent's twin girls, Jasmine and Piper, who arrived safely on 22 May.
9 days old being pushed uphill by Heather in a race!
Jasmine Angeli Kent, 2.4kg at birth
Piper Hayley Kent,2.9 kg at birth
Congratulations also to Zoe & Chris Wagner on the arrival of their daughter, Lily. What a great way to recruit new members to the extended HOH team!
Lily Alison Wagner : D. of B. 06/05/09, 8lb2oz and 38cms long, sleeping well, eating well, very healthy, as is Mum.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE
Each day brings us a step closer to the realisation of the Hospital of Hope Timor-Leste. The generous time, boundless energy and unwavering commitment of all involved in the project are greatly appreciated - THANKS
26th February 2009
Fundraising
Rotary : Andrew Cochrane is following up some initiatives by a Rotary group in Melbourne that have been taken to assist HOHTL
Feasibility Study: A potential Project Manager for a Project Feasibility Study which would act as the basis for future fundraising has been interviewed, is keen and hopefully will start soon subject to some further review.
There are 4 stages of funding:
1) Pre seed- or the above Project Manager to conduct the Feasibility Study
2) Seed- for the initial $600,000.00 required this year for concept design phase, Australian perations and site fencing.
3) Phase 1 - Construction and Commissioning
4) Phase 2 - Operational - Service Delivery
Partnerships
Orthopaedic Outreach: Chris is addressing their Management Committee meeting on Saturday to get a more formalised relationship underway
LEK: Continues to help regularly and is ready to undertake a new project for us when necessary. A Big thank you is due to them.
Clayton UTZ:Is working on the Lease and our AAI agreement. A big thank you is due to them.
Communications and Marketing
Our Web Site is now active : www.hospitalofhope.org Excellent! Thanks very much to Paul Piaia and Zoe and Chris Wagner who have collaborated on this.
Lowy Institute: The Lowy Institute has a number of Publications that support the HOHTL philosophically and which we are using in discussions with potential funders including te Federal government:
"Pacific off target despite support" Jenny Hayward Jones, Program Director of the Myer Foundation Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute for International policy
"The Pacific Islands " Dr Malcolm Cook (Director of the Asia and Pcific Program at the Lowy Institute)
A new Hospital of Hope Summary document has been produced- (ee attached)
Other News
Duane Attree of Capital Insight has offered to help with advice in aspects of hospital management, hospital budgeting, human resources etc
Capital Insight is an independent service provider and leader in the planning and delivery of high profile, large scale, complex projects and programs of work with significant community, environmental and urban benefits.
Andrew Cochrane, Chris, Brendan Bilston and Robert Peck from PeckvonHartel had the pleasure of meeting with Mr Steve Bracks and Ms Kim McGrath his adviser on Timor, last Thursday, February 26 th to explain the HOHTL initiative to him and see if he could help.
Mr Bracks was very supportive. He said that he would arrange meetings for us with the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith and the Parliamentary Secretary, Bob McMullen. He suggested that Chris time his next trip to coincide with his (Mr Bracks's) on 11 th to 13 th of March so that we could have some meetings together with some key players especially the Minister of Finance in Timor . Mr Bracks believes that he may be able to persuade the Minister to put this project on the list of top priority projects for Global Funding in the next round of funding to Timor from the big international development funds.
Medical Advisory Committee - Andrew Cochrane has recommended to the Board that a Medical Advisory Committee be established to advise on all Medical Service provision, medical design, equipping and staffing matters etc. We will move to establish this soon.
THANKYOU
Hospital of Hope Timor-Leste is blessed with a wonderful team of pro bono workers. The Hospital is steadily moving towards becoming a reality. What a special moment that will be when the doors open and the first patients arrive for care. This will be the start of many decades of offering hope and care and compassion to thousands less fortunate than ourselves. Your generosity of spirit and the hard work, that you are fitting in with everything else you have to do in your life, is making this possible. Thank you.
1st Decmeber 2008
Update 1
Hospital of Hope present to the people of Timor-Leste for 2007
An MOU was signed between the Government of Timor-Leste and the Australian charitable organisation, The Hospital of Hope Timor-Leste, in a ceremony on Thursday, 27 December 2006.
The signatories were H.E. Dr. Luis Lobato, the Vice Minister for Health, who was acting as Minister for Health, and Dr. Chris Fenton Managing Director of Hospital of Hope Board of Directors. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta.
Vice Minister Lobato said, "This is a great New Year present that the Timor-Leste Government has been able to attract for the benefit of all our communities. It is the first time the Government has negotiated an agreement that when implemented will establish a hospital in our country, that operates to an international standard.
"The Hospital of Hope organisation, will construct the hospital and the Government of Timor-Leste will provide state land."
According to the plan it will be opened in 2008."
It will be built in Dili and based on the agreement; the government will provide 6 hectares land for the hospital complex. This agreement also says this hospital will provide first world standard health care to the people of Timor-Leste with free care to all citizens of RDTL who are unable to pay for their treatment.
The 84 bed hospital will also provide surgical services, ICU, pathology, pre / postnatal care as well as emergency services.
Meanwhile it will support the national health care system by helping to meet the high and growing demand for hospital and specialist care and by training new Timorese health workers to a high standard. The hospital will also support the development of tourism, NGO operations, foreign investment and diplomatic representation in Timor-Leste.
At the same time Dr Chris Fenton said this hospital will be able to create job opportunities to the Timorese people, starting from making the construction plan, offering the medical positions, as well as the maintenance service of the hospital.
"I have spoken to many doctors in Australia who say that they are very excited to come and give care to the Timorese people," said Dr Fenton. "We are also grateful that Prime Minister Dr José Ramos Horta and the Ministry of Health are supporting us," concluded Dr Fenton.
This project is also being supported by an Australian base Commission that is composed of many eminent citizens, including Timor-Leste Goodwill Ambassador Mrs. Estela Ferreira, as well as several of organisations and institutions in Australia.
© 2010 Hospital Of Hope. All Rights Reserved
Web site design by Scorpion Designs