01666 822 577
Registered Charity No. 1118695
Latest News
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Tue 26 February 2013 Let the Fundraising Fun Begin!
The Trust has now signed up for a CharityGiving account
allowing people to donate quickly and easily online; find the link on our
website’s new Fundraising Page – we’re grateful for every donation, whether it’s 10p or £10, and 100%
of the funds are used for the charity. We’re always thinking of new ways to
raise money as well so if you have any ideas let us know. |
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Tue 26 February 2013 Terrific Start to 2013
The Amalthea Trust has started 2013 as it means to go on
after a jam-packed January and an exciting start to February! Visit our Current Projects page for our new report
to find out what we’ve been up to. |
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Fri 21 December 2012 A Year of Achievement 2012 has been a hugely successful year for Amalthea Trust and we would like to congratulate and thank everyone whose hardwork has made this possible. To read about everything we've accomplished so far, please visit our Current Projects page. |
Thu 9 August 2012Opening of East African Biomedical Engineering Summer School On Monday 6th August, the first East African Biomedical Engineering Summer School opened, being hosted between Kyambogo University and Mackerere University. To find out more, visit our Current Projects page here. |
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Mon 16 July 2012 Successful Trip to Mbarara Hospital! This week the Kyambogo University students fixed the ‘unfixable’ and as a result increased hospital efficiency and decreased patient waiting times. Read all about it here. |
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Mon 18 June 2012 Back in Uganda The Amalthea Trust is delighted to be back in Uganda and ready and raring to go for the next 8 week teaching session at Kyambogo University. You can keep up with all our updates and follow the second part of our project on our Current Projects page. |
Thu 17 May 2012IET Abstract Accepted Amalthea Trust is happy to announce that our abstract for the IET Appropriate Healthcare Technologies for Developing Countries conference has been accepted. Our paper and presentation, entitled “Development of a self-sustaining biomedical engineering training course in Uganda”, presented by our Project Manager Steven Daglish will outline the development of our BMET course in Uganda and the methods we believe will work towards making the course self-sustaining and appropriate to the needs of the Ugandan health system. We’ve also been invited onto the discussion panel to discuss the issues related to medical engineering training in developing countries and look forward to a strong and interesting discussion. More information on the conference can be found here. |
Tue 24 April 2012An excellent turnout for this year’s annual Medical Engineering Forum, representing a wide variety of views and specialities from four different continents, all with an interest in improving the healthcare systems in less-developed countries. The forum was held at Calcot Manor Hotel Conference Centre, courtesy of Richard Ball, Managing Director. It was a great chance to meet up with those already involved with the Trust and with new individuals interested in hearing more about the Trust and engineering work in Africa. The 5 talks were all engaging and thought provoking, bringing up the following main discussions: Collaboration Just within Uganda, there are dozens of charities trying to help improve the healthcare system, but most come up against similar problems, reducing the time they can spend directly on their projects. Of the projects mentioned during the Forum, almost all stated having issues with broken equipment. Therefore, Amalthea Trust will be looking for ways to collaborate with these organisations to find ways of repairing the equipment where possible. This has benefits for their organisation as well as the Trust’s project because it gives our students more practical experience of fixing equipment in real-world situations. From the forum, a strong collaboration is expected between Amalthea Trust and the speakers from the Liverpool-Mulago Hub, with the potential for a joint grant proposal discussed. This will be pursued with further meetings in the future. Evaluation One issue that was brought up frequently during the Forum was evaluation, and specifically how to evaluate the success of our training course over a given period of time. Specific evaluation options weren’t discussed, but this was suggested as another potential area for collaboration, as some of the present organisations were already implementing appropriate evaluation methods. The Trust will be having further meetings with collaborators on potential evaluation methods and how they could be adapted to our own project. Standards Specifically oriented towards Amalthea Trust, there were discussions and potential concerns about how we can be certain that the course is of a high enough standard that the students will be safe and productive as hospital employees. This is a valid argument and something that the Trust takes very seriously. Where appropriate, the Trust has, and will continue to develop the course to UK and EU standards, using only fully trained engineers with the required experience. However, we also have to develop the course in a way that is appropriate to the local environment, using tools and materials that are available locally. Therefore the project will teach both the UK / EU standard, but also teach how to perform specific tasks using what would be available locally. Locally Appropriate Are UK / EU standards appropriate to Uganda? Through his talk on developing a locally appropriate anaesthetic monitoring system, Dr Keita Ikeda brought up some of the issues that are caused by keeping to “western” standards. One of the main issues he brought up was that the process of obtaining CE or FDA approval can add 10s of thousands of pounds to the cost of developing medical devices. This cost is then passed onto the buyer, but when the buyer is from a developing country, this extra cost can make the new device unaffordable. Ike’s idea was to develop medical devices, using components that have been CE / FDA approved, that together is up to those standards, but by not putting the whole device through the standardisation tests, the final project can be considerably cheaper. There were strong opinions on both sides, with each given valid and important points. Continuous Development of Kyambogo University How can Kyambogo University continue to develop the course once Amalthea Trust’s involvement has reduced? This was the discussion after an interesting talk by Mr John Okuonzi and Prof. Opuda Asibo John from Kyambogo University on the future development of the department and the course. The university has strong ideas about what it wants to do in the future. During their talks, they outlined the desire to setup Kyambogo University as a centre of excellence for medical engineering in the East African region. This is an idea that the Trust will be supporting, as we believe this to be a better option compared to developing a large number of smaller medical engineering centres within the region. |
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Mon 9 January 2012 SECOND ANNUAL ENGINEERING FORUM to be held on 7th March |
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Tue 20 December 2011 WELCOME HOME, STEVEN! After 8 weeks of teaching in Uganda, the Amalthea Trust's Project Manager is back and already considering the next course we will be undertaking at Kyambogo. To read his final two reports, click here to go to our Current Projects page. Keep checking our Latest News page for further progress! |
Wed 9 November 2011KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY PROJECT at last, up and running! We are delighted to announce that the Biomedical Engineering course that was mentioned as being in the pipeline at the time of our last update is up and running! For more information, please visit our Current Projects page. To read Project Co-ordinator Steven's latest report click here |
Tue 22 March 2011MEDICAL ENGINEERING FORUM held on Wednesday 9th March 2011 The Forum was held in the excellent Calcot Manor Hotel Conference Centre courtesy of Richard Ball, Managing Director.
Thirty engineers, doctors and representatives from a couple of charities attended. The five speakers gave an insightful and varied view of problems they encountered whilst working in Africa, both from an engineer’s and medical practitioner’s perspective.
As the day progressed, there was plenty of opportunity for the attendees to discuss the issues raised; most of the assembled having had extensive experience of working on various projects in Africa.
A general theme emerged with a number of issues being highlighted by speakers and attendees; these can be categorised as follows:
1. Donations The shortage of equipment was generally not the problem; large quantities of equipment have been donated to African hospitals, however: a) It is often the wrong sort of equipment and is not suitable for the environment or skill levels of users, incorrect voltage etc. b) Equipment over-complicated and lacking spares c) Too many different types of equipment with no continuity d) No manuals / no spare parts
This was discussed at some length and WHO Guidelines for donations were mentioned http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/pht/en/1_equipment%20donationbuletin82WHO.pdf
Hospitals are not in a position to refuse donations and find it very hard to ask for particular types of equipment. If they refuse a donation, the donor may perceive that they do not require help and will direct their activities elsewhere.
Two speakers highlighted this problem by showing photos of their store rooms packed with equipment which will never be used. One hospital had a large warehouse full of boxes of…. no-one knows what! As someone remarked, it was like the closing scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Ark was boxed and hidden into a cavernous Government warehouse, presumably never to see the light of day again!
This raised another issue:
2. No Inventory Control or Planned Maintenance or Repair / Equipment Budget. Most hospitals have no idea what equipment they have in stock, or its condition. Without inventory control there can be no collective plan for maintenance, provision of spares, training, manuals etc. Very few hospitals run computerised admin systems and purchasing involves a very torturous manual approach with many layers of control and management; which ultimately means that nothing gets purchased or, if it does, it arrives a year after the request. E.g. a tube for an anaesthetic machine – without which it won’t work – could take months to replace; in which time the machine is unavailable for operators. 3. Quality of Tools – Quality of Cheap Imported Equipment. Medical Engineer Dr. Keita (Ike) Ikeda also commented on the lack of decent tools to repair anything – citing that in Europe and America there are strict quality controls on all imports, but even then some of the imported Chinese tools are inferior. In Africa there are no controls on import at all, therefore Chinese manufacturers flood the markets with very inferior tools. Ike cited socket sets and spanners with 2mm variations and poor quality steel – this leads to bolt heads being stripped making repairs more difficult. Extension cables, plugs, power tools etc. are often very inferior and, at times, very dangerous.
Equipment sourced from emerging markets such as China and India is very often made out of cheap materials such as low grade plastics that fracture easily and are impossible to repair.
4. Lack of Money for Training Care. Dr Lucy Obolensky gave a thought provoking lecture on her experiences with the Kenya Orthopaedic Project pointing out that the leading cause of death worldwide was trauma and not Aids, malaria or diarrhoea, although all of these receive more help from donor countries than provision of trauma care. Lucy found there was a considerable difference in the approach of the small local hospital she worked at, where they meticulously looked after their operating equipment, and the large Mombasa hospital where they did not bother fixing equipment.
5. Lack of Trained Staff and Medical Engineers All speakers referred to the lack of trained engineers; there were several issues related to this that contributed to the problem. a) No budget within large state-run hospitals to train staff and no perception of need – “if it doesn’t work just leave it”. b) Very few courses for engineers to take at local universities and a shortage of experienced medical engineers to teach students. c) European trained engineers prefer to leave their country to work in the US or Europe for more money, better facilities etc.
Conclusion and Proposals Although the problems in Africa are immense they are not insurmountable. 1. African Governments must get more involved in equipping their state hospitals. Huge donations are given by the EU to countries such as Uganda – but the money often does not find its way into point of service healthcare. 2. Donors should try to talk to the countries Ministry of Health and involve them in the decision making. Donations must be targeted and donors must liaise with hospitals to discuss what they actually need, maintain and use. Often, training on use and maintenance is more useful than actual donations. 3. Supporting infrastructure is essential – reporting faults, equipment, inventories, effective sourcing of spares, training, making a small budget available for repairs etc. 4. Training – we discussed at some length the provision of training. Kyambogo University has asked the Amalthea Trust to support a training programme for medical engineers This has large benefits: 1. Training locally will mean that more engineers will stay in the country – in particular as by sponsoring the course The Department of Health recognises the importance of providing posts for their own graduates. 2. Initially, UK and US engineers will be required to provide practical training to the students. The Amlathea Trust is in negotiations with Kyambogo to support this over 3 years. 3. If the Kyambogo University course is a success this could be replicated at other University / teaching hospitals across Africa. 4. We discussed the provision of an NVQ type certification for the element of training provided by visiting technicians.
Database of Medical Engineers and Projects. The Amalthea Trust would like to maintain a database of medical engineers willing to work in Africa, which could be used by doctors, charities etc. that require help. The database would also be useful for medical engineers travelling to a new country who need practical advice from people who know the environment and culture. Similar charities and hospitals can post requests for help for their particular projects.
The Amalthea Trust will actively encourage engineers to participate and support engineers with funds towards air fare and living expenses.
If you would like more information please contact Mike Hilditch on 01666 822577 Ext 210.
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Wed 3 November 2010 New Technical Assistance facility. Over recent months we have developed our website to include a Technical Assistance section. Here you can log in and have access to a library of manuals and instructions for some of the most commonly used medical equipment. In this area of the site you can also have access to a directory of suppliers with their contact details. We also hope to build up a contact list of engineers who are willing to assist with queries about your equipment. This will indicate their area of expertise, the country they are based in and their contact details. |
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Wed 19 May 2010 New Medical Engineer flies in! Roger Sanders has been working for 15 years as Chief Medical Engineer in the Victoria Hospital, Mahe in the Seychelles. He has a wealth of experience, particularly in setting up engineering workshops and hospital equipment inventories in several African countries where he worked for other Charities. Roger has a broad knowledge of many different types and makes of equipment and is keen to help the Charity, particularly in the area of providing instruction manuals for older models of equipment which are not readily available from the manufacturers. |
