Skip to main content

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


Latest news from Urolink ...

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.


January 2024. In 2021, the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) released a report entitled ‘Experts in Our Midst: Recognising the contribution NHS diaspora staff make to global health'. It aimed to enable and empower diaspora NHS staff, those working in the NHS but having links to other countries. It has now revised that document, which is available here.  THET’s current aim is to promote a globally engaged NHS, committed to contributing to global health and learning and improving in its core function through global engagement. One of this new document’s intentions is to develop an understanding that its diaspora workforce is a strong asset  to UK healthcare.


January 2024. Read about Suzie Venn and Mary Brown's visit to attend the COSECSA Fellowship exams in Addis Ababa in December of last year. 13 candidates passed the exam and Linda Kayange, from Lilongwe, Malawi was awarded the gold medal for the best performing entrant. We congratulate everybody who was successful in this diet and Linda in particular. She became the 5th FCS gold medal winner, all of whom have been associated with Urolink.


January 2024. Read the latest newsletter from Suzie Venn, about what Urolink has been up to in the last 6 months. The period, since July, has been extremely busy with a number of new initiatives which have been funded by generous donations. The letter also expands upon the exploits of the TUF/Urolink fellows, who have been involved in a number of projects at KCMC in Tanzania, as well as what others have been up to, who have been funded by Urolink. Suzie makes the point that not everyone has to commit a significant amount of time to supporting our colleagues in resource poor settings and that the committee is very happy to hear from anyone who wants to become involved


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! 


Urolink News Archive   Click here to contact Urolink   Urolink Publications Archive