Two first time Biomedical Engineer volunteers from the Royal London Hospital, Delroy Gray and Luciano Piccinini, went out to Zambia on 9th October to conduct two weeks of hands-on practical sessions in fault finding, repair and maintenance of Anaesthetic Machines, Ventilators and Oxygen concentrators with the final-year BME students at Evelyn Hone College, Lusaka. The students were joined by a number of in-service BMEs from hospitals around the country eager to get some practical tips on repair of this complex equipment. These workshops were a great success for all involved and the feedback extremely positive from the attendees.
After two weeks Delroy and Luciano were replaced by one of our most experienced volunteers, Ray Emslie (Colchester Hospital HoD retired), who continued the work focussing on Patient Monitoring and Defibrillators, as well as Surgical Diathermy.
This program was due to have started in 2020, but was another casualty of the Pandemic, so it is particularly pleasing to see it now up and running in such a very positive way. Our grateful thanks go out to the staff and students of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Evelyn Hone College for making our volunteers feel so very welcome and valued.