Paediatric Exchange Programme - Vietnam
|
|
 |
|
In Vietnam collaborative efforts between Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin (OLCHC), Children’s Hospital #2, Ho Chi Minh City, the Christina Noble Foundation, Irish Aid and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have changed the lives of sick and underprivileged children in the region and transferred invaluable knowledge and experience to the local teams to allow them to deal successfully with complex problems.
The Paediatric Exchange Programme between OLCHC and Hospital #2, Hoh Chi Minh City was founded by Professor Martin Corbally, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at OLCHC and Associate Professor at RCSI following an invitation he received to visit the hospital in 2004.
The objectives of the programme are to:
- develop, through trust and understanding, a programme of skills exchange between Children’s Hospital #2 Ho Chi Minh City and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.
- use each point of patient contact at OPD, ward and theatre level as a platform of teaching which would be of benefit to all parties involved in this interface.
- improve the standards of medical care given to poor families in the South of Vietnam in such a way that this process will be self supporting
- help Paediatric Hospital #2 achieve these goals within a three to five year period.
In 2005 Professor Corbally led the first team of specialists to Vietnam to carry out complex surgical procedures. Significant progress has been made since then. In 2007 funding was provided to RCSI by the Irish Aid Civil Society Fund which has enabled the project to continue until at least 2010.
The primary aim of the different teams of specialists is to enable their local Vietnamese counterparts to achieve best practice performance in their own areas and so improve the level of care in their own society. The teams that have visited in the last 18 months are:
- Paediatric Orthopaedics
- Paediatric Urology
- General Paediatric Surgery
- Paediatric Plastic Surgery
- Paediatric Airway and ENT Surgery
- Paediatric Anaesthesia
- Paediatric Nursing
Approximately 20 patients are treated on each visit and by each team. These represent surgical complex problems and each case facilitates a major teaching episode.
Excellent working relations have been established at all levels within the hospital and trust and friendship continues to evolve. This has been helped by having funds available to receive some of their staff in Dublin for varying periods of observership at both nursing and surgical levels. In this OLCHC has been of great help by providing accommodation and sponsored meals at the hospital.
The process continues to be supported by the Christina Noble Foundation who provide an interpretive service in addition to sorting visas, transport etc. and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.