Hospital Link
Will Benefit Africans
Lives could be saved in Africa thanks to a
new medical exchange programme between Cheltenham and Sierra Leone.
Two African health workers have visited Gloucestershire
to learn up-to-the-minute medical techniques. Francis Pieh, a laboratory
technician, and Daniel Macarthy, a pharmacist, will now use the skills learned
by shadowing staff at Cheltenham General Hospital to benefit patients in the
Kambia Hospital.
James Dowling of the Kambia Hospital Appeal charity which organised and funded
the two-week trip ending last week said: "Hopefully this will help them to
help the people who come to the hospital. Blood transfusions didn't happen in Kambia as nobody had the skills to do
it and that meant people would die of loss of blood. Francis has now learned
about it."
Daniel said: "This has definitely helped to promote better health care
delivery in Kambia."
Francis said: "The Kambia Hospital and the Kambia community will be very
grateful for this training."
Cheltenham has long-established links with Kambia.
Charity workers spearheaded the campaign to build the newly opened African
hospital after the old one was destroyed in the civil war.
Substantial funds have been raised to equip the hospital - but the exchange is
the first time since the facility opened last summer that the African staff
have been to England for training.
The charity hopes many more exchanges will follow.
James said: "There may now be a building, but a hospital is far more than
that. It's about the people and their skills and we've got a long way to go in
terms of getting them trained and getting equipment. Hopefully this will be the first of many such visits.
It shows Cheltenham is a good example of a community doing its bit for
Africa on a local level."
A team of four midwives and a consultant from Cheltenham General Hospital
volunteered to help in Kambia in February.
The link between Gloucestershire and Kambia was first forged in 1992 when an
African charity worker visiting friends in the county described the region's
plight.
The KHA was set up to support the hospital and rebuild it after the end of the
civil war in the late 1990s.
July 2005
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