First Minister Rhodri Morgan was today [27 June] updated on the progress that Wales is making in developing health links with countries in Africa.
The First Minister was in Swansea to open the second Wales for Africa Health links Annual conference. More than a 100 delegates attended the one-day conference at the Dylan Thomas Centre to hear about the existing links between Wales and Africa and to learn about future opportunities for collaboration.
As part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Wales for Africa framework, funding of £50,000 per year has been available for the past three years to support health teams within Wales to travel to other countries to help them in areas of work relating to the Millennium Development Goals and to develop appropriate education and training for health professionals in Africa.
This year, ten projects have been funded ranging from a partnership involving Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust which aims to reduce maternal mortality and perinatal mortality through the provision of simple drugs and basic training to a partnership between Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust and Hossana hospital to a new partnership which has been established between doctors in Hay on Wye and Timbuktu, following on from the official twinning of both towns last year.
The First Minister said:
On the latest estimate, Africa has a shortage of around four million health care professionals. The links that we are able to make with projects in Africa will go some way to help health professionals in developing countries to benefit from the expertise of our health workers and academic institutions while at the same time allowing health professionals from Wales to broaden their own knowledge by sharing their skills.
The NHS Health Links project has gone from strength to strength since it was established three years ago - Wales now has 20 out of the 100 health links which have been established in the UK – which demonstrates how enthusiastic we are to do what we can to help African countries improve their health provision.
Biku Ghosh, Chairman of the Wales for Africa Health Links Group said:
We can be very proud in Wales the way International health links movement is shaping up here. It is now widely recognised that Wales leads the way in UK in developing and sustaining health links. We pride ourselves on sharing experiences and expertise between individual links within Wales and with our colleagues in Africa. We are fortunate in Wales with commitment at the highest level to global health and sustainable development from NHS, National Public Health Service, Wales centre for Health, the Welsh Assembly and above all from the community. Pioneering Wales Gold star community linking projects are also complementing health links by working with partner countries in Africa in areas beyond health to support them to reach their millennium development goals.
Steve Allen, Reader in Paediatrics at the School of Medicine, Swansea University, and the organiser of the conference said:
We are delighted to host this year’s Wales for Africa Health Links conference in Swansea. The ABM University NHS Trust is working with a number of partners in Africa and we are looking forward greatly to sharing our experiences and learning from others who are also involved in Wales-Africa links. The fact that the conference is over-subscribed shows that people throughout Wales want to get involved with improving health in Africa. The conference will focus on practical activities such as what key actions will allow us to increase the impact of Wales – Africa links.