News from Poole Africa Link
August 2016 Uganda Lira Team (1 of 1)
The 2016 Team
From left to right: Frankie Dorman (Anaesthetist), Jamie Pride (IT specialist), Antoinette McAulay (Paediatrician), Hilary Fenton-Harris (PAL co-ordinator), Sandy Lynn (Physiotherapist), Olivia Wood (Elderly Care registrar), Peter McEwan (Neonatologist), Alison Ahvee (Paediatric Nurse), Bruce Hopkins (Emergency Department Nurse), Leslie Milne (Bournemouth University Midwifery Tutor).
Not present Judy Mella (Surgeon)
Formed in 2009
The Poole Africa link was set up in 2009 when a link was formed between Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Wau Hospital in South Sudan. Since then there have been 12 successful visits with teams of 4-6 healthcare professionals visiting for 2-3 weeks at a time. October 2015 saw a change in direction for Poole Africa Link. Due to the political situation in South Sudan, the scheduled trip was diverted to a new location in Lira, Northern Uganda. The town of Lira has a referral hospital, with 500 beds, and several schools of nursing. Our base was at a new University outside town, which currently has three intakes of midwifery students, (about 150 students in total) plus some business courses and IT courses. In addition they have built a small maternity facility which is due to open shortly and they have ambitious plans to build a 200 bed hospital. Funding for this facility is coming from the African World Bank and the Ugandan government are very supportive. The midwives once trained will have an extended role as they will work in remote village clinics. As well as midwifery they will work as nurse practitioners particularly for sick children, and will be trained to give simple anaesthesia and perform caesarean sections.
Successful trip
Following a very successful trip in October 2015 Poole Africa Link is sending a multidisciplinary team to Lira in September and October 2016 over a 4 week period. The team will be involved in both teaching in the University and Lira District Hospital; with an emphasis on resuscitation and high dependency care. Lira Hospital has a newly resourced high dependency/intensive care unit, but needs training in the care of high dependency patients.
Future plans
Our future plans will be to facilitate continuous professional development of staff from South Sudan from the safer base of Uganda; until the political difficulties allow a safe visit. In the meantime we continue to support the population of Wau via the Sister Gracey’s children’s feeding program.
You can also view our Facebook page. If you are interested in getting involved with future visits or supporting our fund-raising; please contact Hilary Fenton-Harris, PAL co-ordinator on
Hilary.Fenton-Harris@poole.nhs.uk.