Global health projects

‘Future Health Africa’ (Reg: 1182182) is a UK-based charity which was first developed in 2011 by Dr Lucy Obolensky and Dr Kerri Jones.

It strives for sustainable improvement in the health and wellbeing of people in low-middle-income countries (LMICs). Its principle is to work where invited in LMICs, thereby ensuring local engagement and increasing the chances of success. Through sharing skills, the hope is to transform lives, relieve suffering and reduce poverty. It currently offers the following projects, led by volunteer NHS staff, mostly from the SW Peninsula:

1. TRAUMA TEAM projects which are orthopaedic trauma camps/teaching projects delivered side by side by UK and Kenyan volunteers, working together to improve trauma care. Each project runs for 1–2 weeks.

2. GRASPIT programme (Global Recognition and Assessment of the Sick Patient and Initial Treatment). GRASPIT is a one-day course designed to give clinicians a structured systematic approach to the management of acutely ill deteriorating patients. It was established in Kenya with the support of the National Resuscitation Council of Kenya. Welcome to GRASPIT (Vimeo video).

3. ‘SPRINGBOARD’ is a 10-day Quality Improvement (QI) and Leadership skills programme designed to empower front-line health workers to improve their own systems of care. Teams work together to tackle problems identified by them locally and they set up their own QI projects during the course. An abbreviated version of the materials used can be found at UPBEAT. This programme is supported by the Society for Quality Healthcare in Kenya (SQHK).

4. MATERNITY teaching and training.

It has also delivered projects in emergency medicine, first aid, primary care and in communities, working with children to enhance their life chances.

The charity has worked in many areas of Kenya including Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Mombasa, Marsabit, Isiolo, Kitale, Kisumu, Nyeri, Kajiado, Karatina and Nairobi.

Ongoing partnerships are in Nanyuki/Nyahururu and with St Joseph’s Mission Hospital & Trauma Centre in Kisumu County (2023).

Future Health Africa also developed ‘TeamTalk’, a project focussed on improving health at a community level. 

Jonathan talks about his experience with TeamTalk.
 

The GHC also links in with the Health Education England sponsored Emergency Medicine Global Health Fellows.
 

Alongside Future Health Africa, in 2022, the GHC was asked to assist in the development of a new government backed, Kenya-UK Health Alliance (KUKHA). As part of the Alliance, the GHC won a Health Education England (HEE) grant to project manage and lead a Critical Care and Emergency Medicine training programme in Southwest Kenya. The project also hopes to utilise expertise within university, in the creation of a new simulation centre in the same region and by looking at potential for creating novel revenue streams for all stakeholders. 

In 2021 Peninsula Medical School, Peninsula Dental School and the GH collaborative were asked by the Head of Human Resources for Health Secretariat, Rwanda to support delivery of their new 2021 ‘Human Resources for Health’ strategy. 

The GHC won a THET COVID grant to develop a digital partnership between Kigali and Peninsula Medical School. Three lines of collaborative work were established from this. 

The grant also enabled a room in Kigali dental/medical school to be equipped with technology to enable excellent small group digital teaching. In this way this project should be sustainable for the future. 

Virtual Medical Electives were developed and piloted between Plymouth and Kigali medical students who virtually hosted each other. Electives have for some time been thought to be outdated, unethical and not well structured educationally. 

The two departments held multiple virtual group meetings to discuss how they could work together through grand rounds, complex case discussions and journal clubs. Registrars/trainees were paired together to discuss their needs and training requirements and project money was allocated to joint research projects e.g. developing and trialling alternative VAC dressings through adapting aquarium pumps for open fractures (currently unaffordable at £400 / patient). The project has been looking at developing these dressings and trialing them in a research trial). 

A GHC virtual conference, held on 5 November 2021, had a session that presented and evaluated this project. Watch the recordings from the conference.

Led by Dr Aatish Patel, Masanga UK, Peninsula Medical School and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust have been in partnership with Masanga Hospital in rural Sierra Leone since 2008.

During that time we have collectively raised £600,000 and helped to facilitate the rehabilitation of the hospital following the civil war. In the last seven years, over 60 Peninsula Medical School staff and students have been placed at Masanga as part of a mutual benefit programme.

Our volunteers have gained experience in health issues of global importance, such as the Ebola crisis, and in return we have been able to provide skilled workers and funding for a number of educational projects.

Since 2014 we have received two Department for International Development grants to provide training in a number of areas, including infection prevention control and Ebola community awareness. To date we have trained over 500 community members and health care workers, using innovative educational tools and technology to improve resilience against further outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fever.