The vocational training agreement was signed this morning in the Order of Malta’s headquarters in Rome

Rome, 14 September 2016 – This morning in Rome the Holy See’s Bambino Gesù children’s hospital and the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Holy Family hospital in Bethlehem signed a cooperation agreement for medical training. The agreement states that the Children’s Hospital will provide vocational support to the staff of the Holy Family Hospital, referral centre for maternity in Palestine, where every year over 3,500 babies are born. Under this accord, doctors and nurses in the Bethlehem hospital will participate in training courses under the aegis of the missions organized by the Bambino Gesù hospital in this city.

The agreement, which has a duration of two years, after which it can be renewed, mostly involves the neonatology sector. The Holy Family Hospital, which the Order of Malta has managed since 1990, has a neonatal intensive care unit with18 incubators for premature or sick babies.

“We’re very happy about this important agreement,” said the Grand Hospitaller, Dominique de La Rochefoucauld-Montbel. “The medical excellence of the world-renowned Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital cannot but enhance the professional reputation of our doctors and nurses who are assisting thousands of women in the Holy Land, beleaguered and without peace”.

“It is an honour for us to cooperate with the Holy Family Hospital and to offer our skills to help the children and families in Bethlehem and in the Holy Land,” asserted Mariella Enoc, president of the Bambino Gesù Hospital. “Our hospital is increasingly open to the world, not only because of our readiness to treat children from all continents, but also because of our specific cooperation ventures for training local doctors, such as the recent initiative in Bangui in the Central African Republic and this very important agreement with the Order of Malta’s Bethlehem Hospital”.

The Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital

Established in Rome in Rome in 1869 as the first Italian children’s hospital, in 1924 it was taken over by the Holy See. In 1985 it was recognised as an Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care, flanking its medical services with an intense research activity.

Today it is the largest children’s hospital and research centre in Europe. Spread out over four centres (Gianicolo, San Paolo, Palidoro and Santa Marinella) for a total of 600 beds, the hospital covers all the medical specialities, with particular reference to transplant surgery, genetic and metabolic diseases, medical and surgical cardiology, neurosciences, haematology-oncology and rehabilitation.

At international level the hospital is present with cooperation projects in many emerging countries. It has joint ventures with clinical surgery centres active in Jordan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Central African Republic. High specialization projects are operative in Russia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Lebanon, Palestine, Kosovo, Cameroon and Algeria.

The Holy Family Hospital

Since 1990, the Order of Malta’s hospital in Bethlehem has been providing a high quality maternity service to women, guaranteeing healthcare during pregnancy, birth and care of infants. The hospital has an intensive care unit for premature babies or those with serious malformations. To date some 71,000 babies have been born here. There is also a mobile clinic – composed of a gynaecologist, obstetrician and paediatrician – that makes regular visits to the villages in the West Bank desert.

The hospital currently has 60 beds with a staff of 140, including resident doctors, specialists, nurses, paramedics and administrative and other support personnel.

Besides having an outpatients department specialised in gestational diabetes, the hospital works in close contact with the local institutions to assist the more vulnerable patients from difficult social circumstances. Over the course of the years, thanks to financing received from the European Union, the United States Congress and the Belgian government, the hospital has been able to build new delivery rooms and to expand its operating theatres.