ABOUT MOTHER IGNACIA CLINIC
The opening was conducted by the Bishop of Kupang, representatives of the government and local health ministry, dignitaries, representatives of FOHG, hospital staff and over one thousand local residents of Soe.
The Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) is a Catholic order of nuns, founded in 1684 in Manilla, Phillipines, by a lay woman called Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo. The name of the clinic eing the Mother Ignacia Clinic, a reference to their founder.
Our history
Established as clinic in March 4th, 1998 by our Sisters under Ancilla Domini Foundation in Kupang. Our service is focused on helping those patients who are economically poor and cannot afford health care. We were limited in facilities, in form of clinic rooms and medical equipment but we have many patients who came to our clinic which they came from all parts of SoE and even out site of SoE. But after the 15 years of service as a clinic, the Sisters have found the calling to improve their service to a more professional care with better quality, in order to help those who are in need but the sisters could not do anything because of financial constraints.
Finally, through the grace of God, we were helped to expand our service into a hospital by the generosity of Dr. David O’Rourke and his family that was channelled through Flinders Overseas Health Group (FOHG), an organisation providing assistance in health sector. Considering the fact that Muder Ignacia Clinic has experienced an increase in the number of visits through every part of Kota Soe despite being an outpatient clinic, the Sisters are making an effort to increase their service by becoming a hospital, providing more comprehensive, optimal and professional health care that are better in quality.
Click Here to View Our History Presentation
FLINDERS OVERSEAS HEALTH GROUP
The Flinders Overseas Health Group is a charity organisation providing assistance in the health sector in the Eastern Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), which includes West Timor. The people here live in poverty, suffer from malnutrition, have limited education and an under-resourced health system.
Dr David O’Rourke
MB BS FRACGP FARGP FRANZCOG MRMed MWom HMed
Obstetrician and Gynaecologist located in Canberra and working in both public and private sectors.
Areas of clinical practice are obstetrics, gynaecology with special interests in key hole (laparoscopic surgery) and fertility including IVF management.
David was originally a rural general practitioner in NSW Australia with procedural skills in anaesthetics and obstetrics and followed this course for a few years.
Eventually, he pursued specialist Obstetrics and Gynaecology training in Canberra (2003 – 2006 ) and Adelaide (2007 – 2008).
In 2007 a chance meeting occurred with a general surgeon who had a long association with FOHG and clinical work in West Timor. This meeting resulted in two educational trips to Ende (2009) and Keffamenanu (2010) and the discovery that there was a long term goal to build a maternity hospital in a town called Soe. David and his wife Sue-Ann offered the fundraising and together with the rest of the FOHG team the Mother Ignacia Hospital (Muder Ignacia) was opened on the 10th June 2016. This was just the beginning of now an expansion phase to create a 50 bed hospital that will cater for general admissions but also concentrate on maternal and child health. David is committed to the goal of the Mother Ignacia Hospital becoming a self sufficient centre of health education and clinical practice.
Dr Peter Scott
MBBS (UNSW); FRANZCOG
Sadly, Dr Peter Scott, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Canberra Hospital passed away in early 2022
after many years of dedicating his life to improving the knowledge and skills
of many midwives in West Timor. His passion and dedication to midwives in
remote places like Nagakeo and Soe will not be forgotten.
Peter had the good fortune to be invited on a clinical trip to West Timor with FOHG in 2008 – which proved a life-changing experience – and in 2009 had six week-long trips to Ende in Flores, doing teach-the-teacher and hands-on emergency training with midwives as part of FOHG’s Maternal and Neonatal Health Program. This program has continued mainly in the nearby district of Nagakeo, and also in Soe in West Timor.
Ann Maree Parker
Bachelor of Nursing; Bachelor of Midwifery; Masters in Midwifery (University of Canberra)
Since 2014 Peter’s wife Ann Maree Parker , who is a midwife at Canberra Hospital, has also taken part in the training, especially in neonatal resuscitation. They are both passionate about the opportunity to work with the wonderful midwives in these remote places. They are intending to continue making an annual trip to Nagakeo, as well as being part of building up the teaching and facilities at the Muder Ignacia Hospital in Soe.