Partnerships with African hospitals may improve health

Editor—Theory and talk need to be turned into practical solutions when considering the health of Africa.¹ As a (potential) surgical trainee, I was particularly appalled at a recent visit to a hospital in Africa where the general surgeons were able to insist on bribes as well as expenses for performing routine operations. The reason given was that there were simply too few trained surgeons in the country to enable dismissal of corrupt surgeons.

Given the concern by the Royal College of Surgeons of England over the decline in the amount of experience a trainee will accumulate with the new European Working Time Directive,² short stints of 6-12 months in surgery in developing world countries would be beneficial to all. So long as proper and adequate safe supervision was guaranteed, maximising the links between hospitals should ensure that British trainees secure a more thorough, deep, and wide ranging experience in surgery, and that surgeons in developing countries such as those in Africa benefit from working alongside Western trainees. Such investment and true partnership between hospitals may offer more of an incentive for African doctors to work in their own countries.

From my own observations, research skills are also often poorly or seldom taught in Africa, and again, partnerships between African and British medical and surgical trainees in partnership hospitals may benefit the hospital and both African and British trainees.

We in the West need to move from a paternalistic attitude to partnership and practical solutions that will benefit us and our African colleagues. If hospital trainees and workers in this country do not have a real incentive for seriously participating in such partnerships, partnerships are in danger of becoming little more than gestures.