Urolink represents BAUS in Low & Middle Income Countries (LMICs)
Urolink visits have opened up again. We will be advertising when trips are going to take place in this section, so keep watching! Click here to contact us if you wish to volunteer for any of our overseas trips, or help in any other way to support Urolink's objectives
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Latest news from Urolink ...
April 2024. Read about the visit to HUCSH in Hawassa made in conjunction with Urolink by Dr. Pedro Campillo (Hospital Universitario del Vinalopo, Elche, Alicante, Spain) to help our colleagues there come up to speed with minimally invasive stone surgery, something the centre has long aspired to. Despite the difficulties with getting the CT arm, and equipment we expect in HIC, required for MI stone surgery, a huge amount was accomplished. During 13 theatre sessions, over 3 weeks, 14 PCNLs and 13 URSs were performed.
March 2024. Suzie Venn will be chairing the Urolink session at the
BAUS Annual Scientific Meeting on Tuesday 25th June, 1400-1500 in Hall 11a at the ICC in Birmingham. We hope you will all make a date for your diaries! The speakers, and topics, are:
Dr Mumba Chalwe Kaja, Consultant Urological Surgeon, Ndola Teaching Hospital, Zambia. President of Women in Surgery Africa (WISA).
Opportunities for advancing surgical practice in the global south - the WISA experience.
Ala’a Sharaf - Cambridge
Meditech Urogynae Workshop in Malawi.
Wilson To – London and Rory Ferguson – Southwest Deanery
TUF fellowship experience at KCMC, Moshi, Tanzania.
March 2024. Read 'What the Urology Foundation does for urological trainees - Global urology' in TUF's Urology Matters spring 2024 issue. In this Steve Payne showcases how TUF
fellowships have helped a number of urological trainees experience the healthcare environment of Urolink's associates in sub-Saharan Africa. This article helps those without an understanding of what the benefits from working in low resource environments are, and how they help UK-trained urologists in their future careers. Thanks, TUF, for giving us this opportunity.
March 2024. Nick Campain made a scoping visit to Ndola in the Copperbelt region of 
northern Zambia. Together with Simon Mukosai & Dr Mumba Chalwe, Nick was able to evaluate the needs, capabilities and future requirements of the Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH). He left with very positive impressions of how Urolink could assist in the development of this centre, due to the dynamism & positive attitudes of both the consultants leading the service, and the enthusiasm of the younger surgeons who were delivering urological care there. Read Nick’s report here.
February 2024. Suzie Venn, Tamsin Greenwell and Nikesh Thiruchelvam visited Charles Mabedi and colleagues, with trainees Ala’a Sharaf and Wilson To, to carry out the first planned Urogyne workshop in Lilongwe in February. Over 5 days a series of activities, formal teaching, operating and setting up a urodynamics machine were carried out. After the visit there are plans to hold monthly urogynae MDTS between the UK and Malawi, and the team plan to revisit KCH again in a year's time Read about their visit here.
You may also be interested in ...
Listening to Nick Campain interviewing Ru MacDonagh about how he became involved with Urolink, his first experiences of working in Africa, and how this developed into a career-long association with the continent. In, Urolink and me. Setting up the HIPZ charity, Ru explains how his association with Mohamed Jidawi in Zanzibar led to the setting up the Health Improvement Zanzibar (HIPZ) charity in 2006, and how this was the impetus to becoming a leader in Zanzibarian healthcare.
Reading Steve Payne's editorial in the BJUI "What is different about urology in low-middle income countries?" . This summarizes the differences in needs, disease, education, treatments and access to care between high and low, low-middle income countries, drawing on the contents of the 12 papers published by the BJUI during 2022. This series of papers can be found on the Publications page.
Hearing Neville Harrison, the first Chair of Urolink, talking to Steve Payne in March 2021. This podcast tells us about how Neville first came under Africa's spell, his role in the setting up of Urolink in the 1980's, and who helped him achieve the first sustainable link to KCMC in Tanzania. A fascinating retrospective, as Urolink celebrates it's thirtieth birthday!
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