Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Ethiopia
The Addis-Bucks VISION 2020 Link was established in June 2009 and was set to run for 3 years. The link is part of the VISION 2020 project which is overseen by the International Centre for Eye Health and the eye unit at Stoke Mandeville is one of many UK eye units involved in such partnerships with units in Africa. The clinical priorities include, vitreo-retinal training, paediatric service support (orthoptics and paediatric anaesthesia) and nurse training.
Northampton Healthcare Foundation Trust and Brian Lemons Hospital, Zimbabwe,
This is a new (2017) partnership with the Brian Lemons Hospital in Zimbabwe. The hospital was completed in 2002 and sees around 5,000 patients each month. The partnership received a start up grant from the Tropical Health Education Trust to conduct a Needs Assessment in Management, Leadership and Clinical Skills.
Contact Itai Nyamatore (itainyamatore@hotmail.com) for more information.
Oxford Eye Hospital and Cape Town
This link is a specialist eye link with Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and is part of the VISION 2020 Links programme. The VISION 2020 Links programme; established by the International Centre for Eye Health in 2004; aims to increase the quantity and quality of eye training in low income countries by developing sustainable eye links with a suitable UK partner.
VISION 2020: The Right to Sight is a global programme established by the World Health organisation and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide. One of the three core components of VISION 2020 is the development of skilled and competent human resources. The links programme is a perfect fit with the aims of VISION 2020 and will contribute by strengthening ophthalmology training in low income countries (emphasis Africa).
Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford) and Kilimanjaro
“OK Links” are links between Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania. KCMC is a hospital of just under 500 beds providing comprehensive care as a teaching hospital for 11 million people. “OK Links” represents links in a variety of clinical (eg nursing, medicine/surgery, radiology/radiography) and non-clinical (engineering) departments in these two institutions. The emphasis is on the two-way transfer of skills through teaching and training. Staff from Oxford make annual visits to KCMC and trainees from KCMC come to Oxford to learn specific skills. There is also a two-way movement of medical students on electives.
Royal Berkshire NHS Trust - Uganda and other places
The Royal Berkshire NHS Trust has set up a link with Kisiizi Hospital, Uganda. Various consultants, midwives, nurses and junior doctors at the Royal Berkshire Hospital have provided support to Uganda after one of their midwives went to work at Kisiizi Hospital, South West Uganda in 1999. Five teams went out in 2010 and they are hoping to send a similar number in 2011.
Other consultants have visited Nepal for ENT work, India (surgery and anaesthetics), Albania (surgery).
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Selected UK Links
Britain-Nepal Medical Trust
The BNMT aims to assist the people of Nepal to improve their health. It does this by working in partnership with the Ministry of Health, international and local Non-governmental organisations, local committees and communities to establish and maintain sustainable basic health services through:
- Training and capacity building
- People's empowerment
- Advocacy
- Institutional development and strengthening .
BNMT supports four health components:
- Treatment and prevention of infectious diseases (acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, kala-azar and Japanese encephalitis
- Reproductive health and safe motherhood
- Quality care for and prevention of TB , HIV / AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases
- Sustainable supplies of essential drugs
King's College Hospital International Development Unit
The International Development Unit at King's was launched in 2006 to manage our link with Somaliland, the King's THET Somaliland Partnership (KTSP), and to develop further links with academic and healthcare institutions in the developing world.
In 2007 the IDU formed a link with Zimbabwe (KZZ) and following requests from UK medical students, began to offer research based Special Study Modules on global health related topics to GKT undergraduates.
By 2008 further global health teaching covering most areas of international health was offered to Year 2 and Year 4 medical students, in collaboration with colleagues from KCL and other academic centres. The IDU also began developing a wide portfolio of distance learning resources to be used by students and Faculty in academic institutions in developing countries.
Knowledge for Change
Knowledge for Change is a charity that has been working for more than 10 years in Uganda to help improve the health services offered to patients and ensure better standards of care.
It’s core values centre around ethical, sustainable and mutually beneficial improvements in health infrastructure and the capacity of staff and students in the UK and LMICs.
Its work includes professional volunteering and student placements.
Leicester University/University Hospitals Trust and Gondar, Ethiopia
The Leicester-Gondar Link has twinned the Gondar College of Medical Sciences (now the Faculty of Health at the University of Gondar) with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Leicester. Health professionals in Leicester respond to requests from their opposite numbers in Gondar, and transfer skills by means of exchange visits, and over the internet. Some 50 - 60 visits have taken place in each direction over the eight years that the self-financing Link Programme has run.
The Group developed from a conference in June 2007. Its aim is 'To facilitate a co-ordinated and effective approach to promoting and supporting the development of the global health agenda in Wales'. The group is non-representative and comprises enthusiasts from existing health links, THET (Tropical Health and Education Trust) and Welsh Assembly Government