In memory of Dr Helen Jackson (1974-2024)

Dr Helen Jackson, a British General Practitioner (GP), lived in the Maldives with her family for 11 years, from 2012-2024. Since 2019, with a team of local and international doctors, she had been lobbying the Maldives Ministry of Health for a GP training programme for Maldivian doctors, and other measures to strengthen primary care in the outer islands. The programme was eventually accepted and funded, but never started.

In 2023 she started working as the Medical Director and a GP at the newly opened Pain Clinic in Malé, the Maldives capital. There she began to see patients with multiple chronic physical, social and mental health problems. This helped to confirm that more specialist primary care physicians, or GPs, were needed to help support patients with complex illnesses and to give them the best care possible.

Here Dr Helen explains the importance of primary care for chronic disease management.

In January 2024, just after her 50th birthday, Dr Helen suffered two big strokes, the first in Baa Atoll, and the second in hospital in Hulhumalé. She had no health indicators to suggest a clotting risk. Following an emergency medical transfer to the UK and admission to a specialist stroke unit in Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, she died on 5th February 2024.

Despite this huge personal shock and professional setback, Dr Helen’s Maldivian colleagues, Dr Shah and Dr Ishag, would like to see the vision that she had for post graduate medical training continue. Through a partnership with the Royal College of GPs and the Maldivian National University, there is an opportunity for Maldivian doctors to train for the internationally recognised MRCGP exams. The programme would work with the Ministry of Health to develop a model for primary care that links island health centres and atoll hospitals with secondary and tertiary hospitals in the capital, providing continuity of care for patients and big reductions in the cost of healthcare delivery through better patient management.

To do this, a fund has been established in Dr Helen’s name to explore the following options:

1. To help develop a Primary Care training faculty at the Maldives National University

2. To support and subsidise Primary Care training costs generally

3. To pay for the MRCGP exams for future Maldivian GPs.

4. To subsidise qualifying patients at the Pain Clinic, allowing them more time from a GP so that their multiple chronic illnesses can be properly assessed and have management plans developed (as Dr Helen had begun to do).

We hope that you will give generously, and we look forward to keeping you informed as this programme is developed. This is a long-term vision, so your patience will be greatly appreciated.

If you are a doctor with experience in GP training, or have an interest in Public Health and Primary Care, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can share more information about the programme.

With best wishes,

Dr Shah Mahir - Former State Minister of Health, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and deputy CEO of IGMH, the biggest public hospital in the Maldives

Dr Ishag Shafeeg - Medical Director of Arizona Pvt Ltd, providing primary care services to people in the Greater Male’ region

Gordon Jackson - Helen’s husband