Queen Mary's Women's Health Research Unit launches ELLY appeal

To mark the launch, a range of clinicians, academics, community support groups, patient representatives, local businesses, city firms and other maternity charities in the UK will tonight gather for an event at the Geffrye Museum in East London. Dr Dan Poulter MP and HE T. Jasudasen, the High Commissioner for Singapore will also be attending to show their support.

One woman dies every minute from a pregnancy related complication somewhere in the world, usually due to lack of trained staff, equipment and resources. The aim of the ELLY Appeal is tackle this global problem by building a network of sustainable partnerships which support and educate women locally and globally.

Through these partnerships, women will have improved access to optimal maternal healthcare through education, research and training – both locally in East London and around the world. Due to social inequalities, deprivation and poverty, many women in East London have additional maternal healthcare needs.

The work of the ELLY Appeal involves three main areas:

• Training and development: Maternity emergencies require fast, safe and coordinated responses by a trained multi-professional team. The Royal London Hospital’s Women’s Health Unit were pioneers in developing the multi-disciplinary team approach for PROMPT (Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training). Our obstetricians have now also developed a maternity critical care training package, delivered by teachers in the UK.
• Research: There are two major studies due to launch, one looking at reducing the risk of pre-eclampsia through diet and another looking at Pulse oximetry testing to detect early signs of infection in newborn babies, which if untreated may prove fatal.
• Global projects: These include the ELLY massive obstetric haemorrhage course in South-east Asia, MOMS emergency obstetric skills and drills for developing countries and assisting obstetric fistula surgery teaching camps.

Khalid Khan, Professor of Women's Health and Clinical Epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, comments:“We are very excited to officially launch the ELLY appeal today. Through this important network of partnerships we will be able to help women in East London directly, and improve the care we offer our local community.”