Education In Gaza - Update

Today via a crackling skype connection to Gaza, I spoke with Paul Wicker - Professor of Education at Edge Hill University, Manchester.

Paul is part of the MiST team firmly establishing new standards through education and capacity building in Gaza. He expected to encounter the effects of guns, trouble, social problems, but instead encountered incredibly friendly people, deprivation and lack of resources.

"The people of Gaza have tremendous communal spirit, they are nice and helpful people. They are incredibly grateful for our help and willing to listen and learn."

The team have spent much of their time at The European Hospital in the South of the Strip. The hospital has adequate equipment and medical resources in place. Perhaps not to the standard of Western hospitals, but good for a country where simple products like food, clothing, tools to build a home are scarce.

However, throughout the hospital, including in theatre, there are no policies, protocol or procedures - no standardisation. Even equipment, arrived from a number of different countries, creates problems with consistency.

The transformation of a countries medical system is unquestionably, a massive task.

Some issues can be resolved quickly with short skills courses.

• Rubbish is strewn in an environment we should expect extreme cleanliness.
• There are no swab checks - during one operation 50 swabs may be used, it is standard in the UK to count these swaps before and after surgery. It would be incredibly easy for these small swabs to remain in the patients body potentially causing serious infection.
• There is no counting of tools either, it is possible these too could be lost within a limb.

"Basic health & safety would greatly reduce risks of injury and infection."

Offering The Best In Education

One of the educational techniques within the MiST programme, is the Video Conference. This Wednesday, 2 lecturers at Edge Hill University lead a talk on airway management to a room of medical students in Gaza. After an hour which included Q&A across the countries, the MiST team in Gaza followed up with a practical, hands-on workshop.

This technique combines expertise from those in the UK (or anywhere globally) and those able to take often unpaid time out to help a country in great need.

Author: Alice Hutt (mediamist@gmail.com)