The British charity Muntada Aid launched a new initiative in Qena governorate. A 10-member volunteer medical team led by a British surgeon arrived in Egypt to conduct surgeries for 70-80 underprivileged children and to train 100 Egyptian doctors in the Qena General Hospital. The medical team includes paediatric surgeons, cardiologists, anaesthetists, perfusionists, nurses, and technicians, according to the British embassy in Egypt. Muntada Aid collected donations from British citizens to carry out the surgeries through its "Little Hearts" project, the embassy added. “Muntada Aid is committed to developing access to paediatric cardiac care services across Africa. Every year in Africa, around 300,000 children are born suffering from congenital heart defects and less than 1% of them receive the necessary care,” Programmes Manager at Muntada Aid, Kabir Miah, said. Muntada Aid wishes to set up permanent cardiac programmes in Africa, where operations will be carried out throughout the year and will provide training to cardiac surgeons, Miah added. The first programme in Africa will be set up in partnership with the University of Mansoura. These programmes will ensure the long-term sustainability of the project. “We thank all the medical staff from Qena University Hospital for their participation and support during our mission. We hope this will be a long and fruitful collaboration that continues to save the lives of more and more children," Miah declared. "I am delighted to see a people-to-people initiative that reflects the British people's readiness to support Egypt. As a government, we continue to support Egypt's efforts to reform its healthcare system. Today, the British people proved this is their goal as well," British ambassador to Egypt, Sir Geoffrey Adams, said. Muntada Aid has carried out seven Little Hearts missions in Egypt in the past five years, in the cities of Zagazig, Mansoura, and Qena. In September 2018, the organisations' doctors performed lifesaving operations on 71 children and trained around 100 medical professionals in the Mansoura University Hospital. Since its launch in 2012, Muntada Aid has taken their volunteer medical team of paediatric cardiac care specialists on 29 missions to nine countries and provided lifesaving surgeries and interventions to over 2,000 children. Moreover, several British medical experts have concluded training for 35 locally based Egyptian doctors in Port Said, as part of the ongoing cooperation agreement between Egypt and the UK. This multistage training programme is designed to pass on knowledge to doctors across Egypt, by sharing best practice and lessons learnt by UK healthcare professionals. This will allow for accelerated and successful adoption of new care pathways within Egypt, with the associated benefits in patient experience. Egyptian doctors received a three-day course in Egypt, led by medical experts from British healthcare company Escalla, before they headed to the UK to complete their training. Thirty-three doctors have completed their training in the UK. By the end of this year, British company Escalla hopes to increase this figure to 100 general practitioners. Based in London, Escalla has 25 years of experience delivering digital and healthcare training solutions. They bring together effective subject matter expertise, skills analysis, delivery platforms, and technology, to transform healthcare in the UK and around the world.
