I'm volunteering with the Global Emergency Medicine (GEM) Project Sachibondu and will travel to Zambia in September 2018.

I am doing a cycle challenge to raise funds and will cycle 50 miles from Edinburgh to North Berwick & back to Edinburgh on Saturday 8th September!

PROJECT SACHIBONDU

Located in one of the most remote corners of Africa, on the Zambian border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, the Sachibondu Rural Health Centre is the only healthcare provision for tens of thousands of isolated people. In many cases patients have been reported to walk or travel up to ten days from their home in order to reach the Centre.

Increasing patient numbers means the current clinic is becoming overwhelmed and buildings are not fit for purpose, so Sachibondu managers worked with Orkidstudio, an innovative humanitarian architectural organisation, to redesign a new facility. You can find out more information about the project build here https://orkidstudio.org/projects/sachibondu-hospital/17/

Orkidstudio in turn approached GEM to be medical advisors, GEM believes that hospital buildings should be tailored to patient flow systems to enable emergency care systems to work. However if health care workers lack adequate skills to instigate appropriate emergency triage, assessment and treatment of critically unwell patients, no building or innovative design will ever truly improve clinical care.

The most urgent educational need identified was improving the recognition and management of acutely unwell patients. By targeting triage, assessment and resuscitation of patients (neonates, children and adults) this will provide a building block for future work, whilst also improving the quality of clinical care and safeguarding emergency patient management.

The new hospital design is currently set for completion in September 2018 and education has been focused on 6 key areas in the initial phase of this project to support the local care team in the development of sustainable emergency care!

(1) Triage, assessment and emergency treatment of acute conditions
(2) Recognition of the deteriorating patient
(3) Essential nursing skills
(4) Hand washing and hygiene
(5) Waste management
(6) Quality improvement and audit

You can find out more information about the work of Global Emergency Medicine and Project Sachibondu here https://www.globalemergencyresearch.com/projects/project-sachibondu/