Hospital staff send pennies to Africa

Staff at nine Bristol hospitals are donating money from their wages to help improve healthcare in Africa.

The employees at Bristol Royal Infirmary, the children's hospital and its sister sites have signed up to a scheme where they will only take full pounds from their wages – any additional pennies will be donated directly to a campaign.

It is called Pennies from Heaven and will support a hospital in Mbarara in Uganda that is in partnership with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHBristol).

Clinicians from the city hospitals will go out to Africa to help train staff at Mbarara Regional Hospital.

The aim of the programme is to help improve healthcare for some of the world's poorest people by sharing the skills of staff in Bristol.

A fundraising appeal has been set up by the hospital to supplement the money they make directly from wages every month.

Uganda is a poor country where the life expectancy is 50, compared to 79 in the UK.

Doctors and nurses from different departments within the hospital trust have already been to Mbarara to identify the type of support that students and clinicians in the region need and will tailor their future help to what they discovered.

Among those to visit the hospital and medical school in Uganda was consultant in fetal medicine and obstetrics Mark Denbow and four of his colleagues, who spent eight days in Mbarara.

A colleague who had previously visited Mbarara had found that too many mums and babies were dying during childbirth.

Dr Denbow said the visit had been a scoping exercise.

He said things were very different in Uganda, but it was important to tailor help to what would work practically in Mbarara.

He said: "The wards usually have about 25 beds, but there would also be patients on mattresses on the floor. It was quite a good sign for a patient if they were told to lie on the floor as it means the doctors are slightly less worried about them."

Derek Tole, lead clinician at Bristol Eye Hospital and some of his colleagues also took a trip to Mbarara to see what help they can offer clinicians.

He said that one per cent of the Ugandan population is blind, and 75 per cent of cases could have been prevented or treated if patients were seen soon enough after symptoms started.

Assistant director of the medical team at UHBristol, Phil Hall, said: "It was life changing visiting Mbarara; you cannot imagine how desperate the situation is out there.

"The money raised through Pennies from Heaven will support staff from Mbarara to visit Bristol, doing exchange visits.

"Mbarara is awash with expensive, wasted equipment that could be used. What they need are skills and we want to increase skills, particularly of nursing staff."