international health at bsms

University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka

Students prepare for exams

Kalingalinga compound, a Lusakan suburb

A medical ward

A pharmacist at UTH

International health at BSMS

The expansion of medical education in Britain is helping address the pull factors fuelling ‘brain drain’ from other countries. BSMS and BSUHT staff consider how to help alleviate the push factors.

In February, three Brighton doctors and a biomedical scientist spent ten days in Lusaka, Zambia. Exploring how links could be made with the University Teaching Hospital (UTH)/College of Medicine, they met staff and students, and helped out as external examiners.

‘Our main link in Lusaka was with Dr Peter Mwaba, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine’, says
Dr Melanie Newport, Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and International Health at BSMS. ‘Through him we met the heads of other medical, nursing and associated departments, educational
establishments, many of the medical students whom we were examining and the postgraduate doctors at various stages of their training. Our welcome could not have been warmer and we
all had a thoroughly enjoyable and productive visit.’

‘What became clear is that there are many facilities available, an inspiring cohort of medical students and a hardworking team of postgraduate doctors who are asking for support in developing their training and career structure’ says Dr David Bloomfield, Lead Clinician for Cancer.

The lack of postgraduate education and training for nursing or medicine is one of many factors contributing to the migration of trained health care
professionals out of Zambia. Half of the 700 doctors working there come from abroad. UTH has only 550 nurses despite having the capacity for 1500.

The Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) Links project seeks to provide such education and career support, advising on planning, developing and monitoring links between UK hospitals and trusts as well as providing small grants. Individuals at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust (BSUHT) and sister organisations such as the Brighton and Hove Primary Care Trust are already involved in international health activities, and the
developing THET link between BSUHT and UTH will add to these. A network of non-governmental organisations based in Brighton, and working in Zambia, and academic departments on the Universities of Brighton and Sussex campuses, are also enthusiastically getting involved.

Small projects that would be relatively easy to fund and complete include short term training visits in both directions, for example for the new oncology unit that is to open in Lusaka later this year.

Dr Bloomfield points out that 'Cancer is a major problem in Zambia and causes much suffering that could be alleviated. There were requests for help with a palliative care formulary and training.’ These projects will underpin efforts to develop more longterm, sustainable links.

One of the most striking things to come across during the visit was the desire for postgraduate education in all disciplines, especially nursing. Nurses in Brighton have already stablished contact with Mrs Mercy Mbewe, Director of Nursing at UTH, to develop nursing education in HIV. They hope to visit Lusaka soon.

Dr Mwaba of UTH comments: ‘There is a lot of excitement around for this new collaboration and we are all excited by the potential this link holds. I really look forward to a fruitful collaboration between our two institutions.’

As well as patients and health care workers in Zambia, UK staff all benefit from such links. Dr Newport recalls how much there was to learn. ‘Within an hour of stepping off the plane, I was shown ten X-rays that I have never seen here. It reminds me how much we take for granted here, from water on tap to drug availability. And it’s also an opportunity to meet new colleagues and practise medicine in a different setting.’

See www.thet.org for more information, or contact m.j.newport@bsms.ac.uk