Why Humanitarian Missions matter
13 November 2019 (Last updated: 4 May 2020 13:06)
Eiling Wu, a specialty registrar (StR) in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, is one of an international group of surgeons who will speak at a unique event where UK humanitarian OMFS surgeons will share their experiences and knowledge.
Since starting as a StR in the West Midlands, Eiling Wu has kept her interest in global health and spent a month travelling around Cameroon with Mercy Ships. She was part of a land team of medical training facilitators teaching and integrating the surgical safety programme.
“I first volunteered as an expedition medic providing medical support to charity trips in 2010,” she said, “and I remember my first encounter with the WHO (World Health Organization) surgical checklist and wondered why we weren’t just getting on as usual. Now I cannot imagine starting a list without it, nor could I do without it. Yet many countries do not have any mechanism in place to ensure the theatre team, equipment and patient are ready for the procedure,” Eiling Wu explained.
She has since spent a month travelling to hospitals in Cameroon as part of the Mercy Ships WHO checklist project, involved in both the initial training as well as leading the follow up visits to hospitals.
“The feedback showed changes in practice, attitude and efficiency. That’s why I’m pleased that the Royal Society of Medicine event will give me the opportunity to share facts about surgical safety we aren’t always taught, its relevance even today for us and how I learnt that the checklist is also about team building and teaching.”
Eiling Wu will talk about integrating the WHO surgical safety checklist in Cameroon: “I want to share thoughts - mine as well as my Cameroonian team - on what mattered and what worked to integrate new ideas and systems. This will be a good opportunity for everyone at the event to talk about ways to improve surgical safety, what has and hasn’t worked for them and the barriers we face. So often, timely access to healthcare is hindered by the cost to the patient, fear of complications and confidence of the theatre team in what they can achieve,” she concluded.
About Eiling Wu and humanitarian missions:
Eiling Wu qualified from St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Medical School in 2002 and King’s College London with a dental degree and Associate of King's College (AKC) award in 2013.
As a general surgical registrar, she worked with Operation Hernia in Ghana operating and teaching local surgeons. In 2010 she spent three months in a cottage hospital in Tanzania helping to develop the clinics, theatre and operative skill set.
Since starting as a StR in the West Midlands she has kept her interest in global health and spent a month travelling around Cameroon with Mercy Ships as part of a land team of medical capacity training facilitators teaching and integrating the surgical safety programme.
- Mercy Ships is an international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need. @MercyShips
- The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist was developed after extensive consultation aiming to decrease errors and adverse events, and increase teamwork and communication in surgery. The 19-item checklist has gone on to show significant reduction in both morbidity and mortality and is now used by a majority of surgical providers around the world. In 2007, across eight countries, eight hospitals integrated the new 19- point WHO guidelines in the form of a checklist into their practice. The results published by Haynes et al showed a reduction in morbidity and mortality in both high and low/or middle-income countries (LMIC) as great as 21.4% to a 5.5% reduction in complications in one LMIC hospital.
- The Royal Society of Medicine Beyond our shore: Humanitarian and global maxillofacial surgery event is on 20 November 2019 at 1 Wimpole Street W1G 0AE. Surgeons working in several countries, including Ecuador, Peru, Iraq, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Philippines and Cameroon, will raise the profile of the humanitarian and global work undertaken by UK OMFS teams.
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