In June 2019, a medical team from AHA will be traveling to Malawi for another Mediserv trip!
Every time we have MediServ trips, we look for ways to improve them and have a larger impact. This trip will be our most innovative and far-reaching yet! Similar to last trip, we will have a surgical, dental and training aspect to the program and this time we are adding a maternity/pediatric aspect as well! The overarching goals of our trips is to provide access to healthcare to hard-to-reach patients but also participate in an exchange of skills with Kabudula Community Hospital and other partners so all clinicians participating in the programs (visiting and Malawian) leave with improved capacity to treat their patients long after the trip.
Our staff on the ground have been working very hard to make sure that everything our team will need is prepared. Over the past few months, we have been working hard with our partners at Kabudula Community and the Ministry of Health to meet their needs. They are also helping us with the trip logistics which include patient recruitment, equipment preparations and the program plan.
We were recently approached by a general surgeon at Kamuzu Central Hospital about the possibility of our surgical team visiting them to help train intern surgeons on a specific type of surgery. By doing this, we will reduce their backlog and also have the opportunity to help train surgeons at the largest hospital in Lilongwe.
Preparations for a trip like this take a lot of work and collaboration within Malawi and the US, we are excited to see everyone’s hard work pay off and see the impact we can have this year!