From Antarctica to West Africa, Peru to India, Vietnam to Uganda and Kenya, healthcare professionals and academics from across the South West have long contributed to health needs around the globe.
Now, they have come together to form the Global Health Collaborative – dedicated to improving healthcare and providing UK health professionals with opportunities overseas through special projects, education, research and sustainability.
The Global Health Collaborative is a growing network and is currently a partnership between the University of Plymouth, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Masanga Hospital in Sierra Leone and Exploring Global Health Opportunities.
The range of projects is extensive and includes: orthopaedic treatment and surgery in Kenya; the development of nurseries for poor urban children in Peru, with related job opportunities for local women; training in Ebola care and infection control in West Africa, through Masanga Hospital with which the University of Plymouth and Derriford Hospital have a long relationship; a hospital for the poor near Delhi; support for medics and staff in the British Antarctic Survey; physiotherapy support in Palestine, and; lung disease initiatives in Uganda, Vietnam, the Kyrgyz Republic and Greece.
Sitting at the heart of the Global Health Collaborative is a range of postgraduate masters courses in global and remote healthcare, delivered by Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (PUPSMD), in conjunction with other Global Health Collaborative partners. The University of Plymouth is a world leader in providing global health education to doctors and other health care professionals.
Dr Lucy Obolensky, Associate Lecturer in Global and Remote Healthcare at PUPSMD and co-founder of the Global Health Collaborative commented:
“A great number of us have been taking our skills and expertise overseas for many years, and it is exciting to be able to bring all that knowledge into one umbrella group so that we can contribute still further to health around the world. It is not just about help and support to people in some of the poorest parts of the world – there are benefits too for the UK, not just in providing our healthcare professionals and students with valuable and life-changing opportunities, but also because what we learn overseas can be translated back into improving our practice within the NHS.”Professor Robert Sneyd, Dean of PUPSMD, added: “The Global Health Collaborative has our full support. It is a convincing implementation of our three core principles – exceptional clinical learning, strong social engagement and world-class research. It also represents the importance we place on effective partnerships both in the UK and around the globe.”