How The SMP is Responding

09 April 2020

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic presents a huge set of challenges for Scotland, Malawi, and the SMP. We have moved quickly since mid-March to disseminate news and information to Members and to prepare ourselves for an extended period of home-working, and to keep our channels of communication open and transparent.

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic presents a huge set of challenges for Scotland, Malawi, and the SMP. We have moved quickly since mid-March to disseminate news and information to Members and to prepare ourselves for an extended period of home-working.

So far, our systems are working well, with all staff supported to work from home, and face-to-face meetings and engagements successfully moved to digital platforms.

On the 31st March we hosted a special Health Forum by Zoom, with around 50 contributors across Scotland, Malawi and beyond, exploring the preparedness for Covid-19 in Malawi. We had detailed updates from the heads of the College of Medicine, the Malawi Scotland Partnership, key civic society individuals and organisations in different regions of Malawi, the Ministry of Health, A&E departments, the Scottish Government and other experts across Malawi, Scotland and the US. These discussions will continue to inform our thinking.

The SMP Board is in the process of finalising our Covid-19 response strategy and risk register, and we expect to have both published on this page shortly after Easter.

For now, we are operating on the assumption that travel and social distancing restrictions will continue until the summer, meaning homeworking will continue for several months, and all engagements will need to remain digital. We hope that key major events in the autumn, including the AGM, Youth Congress and the re-scheduled SMP Alexander McCall Smith operetta, will be able to go ahead as planned – but this assumption will be kept under review.

We will keep members regularly updated on these pages, our weekly Member bulletin and our social media channels.

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