Dr Oliver Ross is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Southampton University Hospitals Trust (SUHT). He recently took 9 Lifebox oximeters to the the Sandema District Hospital in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
Anaesthesia for the entire one million UER population is provided by only twelve nurse anaesthetists. Safe anaesthetic provision is hugely compromised, in part, by a desperate shortage of basic monitoring equipment.
As part of an ongoing partnership between Ghana Health Services (GHS) , Afrikids NGO and Southampton University Hospitals Trust, and thanks to the generous donation by Lifebox and patients at SUHT, we were able to deliver nine Lifebox pulse oximeters to support the provision of safe anaesthesia in the region.
The oximeters were presented to Dr Koku-Awoonor-Williams, Regional Director for Health , GHS UER, and the handover was covered on Ghana TV! We ran a full oximeter training workshop attended by not only anaesthetists from around UER but also nursing staff at the Regional Hospital and local district hospital doctors, which was warmly received.
Each district hospital and the Regional Hospital will now have at least one pulse oximeter to use in theatre, for the recovery of patients or for help in identifying sick patients.
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