A new partnership for anesthesia training in Zambia: reflections on the first year

Abstract

Purpose A new postgraduate anesthesiology residency program has been founded as a North-South partnership between the United Kingdom (UK) and Zambia. The project aims to train physician anesthesiologists in Lusaka in an attempt to address the high perioperative mortality associated with anesthesia as well as to provide better professional support for clinical officer anesthesiologists. Principle findings We present a detailed description of our experiences in establishing a new global health partnership and reflect on the outcomes of the first year of the training program. The formal healthcare partnership between the UK and Zambian governments began in 2009.

Avoidable perioperative mortality at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia: a retrospective cohort study

“…The frequency of suboptimal care in the postoperative period is a major concern and should be a particular focus for the anesthesia training program at the UTH. 11 Anecdotally, there was little improvement in intensive care resources at UTH from 1987 to 2012, e.g., only ten intensive care beds for over 1,600 hospital beds, lack of basic equipment such as syringe pumps, an open unit with no dedicated intensive care physicians, and inadequate nursing education and staffing. Lack of availability of intensive care beds and poor postoperative nursing care were the most common systems factors after lack of blood availability, and it Green refers to unavoidable deaths, orange to probably avoidable deaths, red to avoidable deaths, and grey when it was unclear whether the death was avoidable.…”

Thinking globally, training locally

“…10 Recruitment and retention efforts by a partnership of Global Partners in Anesthesia and Surgery and Makerere University increased the number of anesthesia trainees from two in 2007 to 19 in 2011, all of whom graduated and remained in Uganda.…”

Faculty experiences regarding a global partnership for anesthesia postgraduate training: a qualitative study

“…1 For instance, it is estimated that there are only about 12 physician anesthetists in Rwanda for a population of over 11 million 2 and less than one physician anesthesiologist per million population in Zambia. 3 The lack of trained specialists is associated with substandard care 4 despite evidence that investment in surgical care is a cost-effective method of improving public health in LMICs. 5 The lack of capacity to train future specialists perpetuates the situation and impedes a longterm and sustainable solution.…”