Annual Event and Awards a big success

We welcomed nearly 100 attendees to CGHP’s Annual Event and Awards last month. Over the course of the evening, we heard from five inspiring speakers – all CGHP members who’ve lived and breathed some of our two-way health partnerships. They described work that is improving the delivery of critical care, access to education for children with hearing loss, and antimicrobial stewardship practices – to name just a few.

Education Lead Critical Care Lisa Enoch kicked off proceedings with a presentation about the SCALE Critical Care partnership with Uganda, describing the revitalising effect of reciprocal training on her fellow nurses. Cambridge-based community paediatrician Tamsin Holland Brown talked passionately about a project in Malawi that is helping school children with hearing loss to access education with a simple over-the-ear hearing device. Next, Obstetrics and Gynaecology specialist trainee Barida Poi described the life-changing impact global healthcare work has had on her own practice, while Thet Winn Aung discussed the challenges that have been overcome in delivering a telemedicine programme in Myanmar. Denise Williams wrapped up the presentations with an overview of a paediatric cancer partnership that is improving care of children with cancer in both the UK and Uganda.

Ably chaired by Dr Sue Broster, Consultant in Neonatal Medicine and Director of Innovation, Digital and Improvement at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the presentations were followed by a short Q&A with insightful questions from the audience.

We finished the evening with CGHP’s inaugural awards, presented by CGHP committee Chair Catherine Arnold OBE. This was an opportunity to recognise and acknowledge some of the people and teams who have made significant contributions to CGHP and global healthcare partnerships. Selecting winners from such an impressive cohort of passionate members and supporters is no easy task, and we acknowledge all those who give their skills and expertise voluntarily to vital health partnerships work.

Outstanding Contribution Award
An NHS staff member who has made an outstanding contribution to health partnerships and CGHP in the past 3-5 years.

Winner: Charlotte Patient

Charlotte is a consultant obstetrician at the Rosie Hospital and Associate Dean in the International Office of NHS England in the east of England region. She is involved in many different areas of work with CGHP and has been instrumental in driving forward the Kampala Cambridge maternal and neonatal health partnership. Since 2015, Charlotte has worked closely with obstetric colleagues in Kampala – working to introduce clinical guidelines to improve management of obstetric emergencies and co-leading an editing team from Cambridge and collaborating with a Ugandan team who are writing a textbook ‘Principles of African Obstetrics’ soon to be published by Cambridge University Press. As an Associate Dean, Charlotte co-leads the East of England Global Health Fellowships programme, is supervisor to many of the fellows and is hugely supportive of all the fellows. Charlotte is always suggesting new ways to help develop the partnerships and quick to point out and support new funding opportunities to grow CGHP’s work. She does this despite a huge workload at The Rosie Hospital, the effects of the strikes and the Covid pandemic. 

Inspiring new member award
An individual who has joined as a CGHP member in 2022-23 and provided inspiration to partners, colleagues and CGHP.

Winner: Mercy Adera

Mercy Rebecca Adera is a registered nurse at the Rosie Hospital moving from Kenya to join CUH in 2021. With prior experience at Vihiga County Referral Hospital in Kenya, Mercy brings a wealth of knowledge in international healthcare delivery. Mercy was the recipient of a diaspora bursary in late 2022 that enabled her to give back to her Kenyan community by joining the CGHP team who visited Kakamega to co-deliver training on managing sepsis. Mercy’s cultural knowledge and understanding of local challenges made a huge difference to the way the course was run and its success. She was an inspiration to both the team that went with her and the staff at Kakamega and has continued her involvement virtually and in person since returning providing support to the teams on both sides.

Innovation in a health partnership award
An individual or team who are finding new ways to solve problems which effect change.

Winner: Malawi Cambridge Team

Cambridge ENT and Paediatric Consultants Isobel Fitzgerald O’Connor and Tamsin Holland Brown; Global Health Fellow and senior ENT trainee Catherine de Cates, and their Malawian colleagues in Blantyre: ENT surgeon Wakisa Mulwafu and Audiologist Mwanaisha Phiri. By working together this team has demonstrated that the simple, affordable and low cost hearing device developed by Tamsin and used in the UK can also be used by children in Malawi, suggesting that it has much wider potential internationally to support children with hearing loss and improve access to education. The partnership team have published their work in open access journals, won three awards at national conferences and been featured on ITV Anglia.

Fundraising award
A CGHP member who has been particularly successful in raising funds for the partnership that they are involved with and / or CGHP.

Winner: Shadi Basyuni

Shadi Basyuni is an Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery specialty trainee at Cambridge University Hospitals, and the founder of FaceForward – a project aiming to help address the oral and facial needs of the refugee population in Jordan. Many are living with the physical, mental and social consequences of untreated facial injuries, and FaceForward is seeking to form a partnership between the Addenbrooke’s surgery teams and the Jordanian surgeons working on the ground in Amman, by carrying out regular trips to Jordan to provide surgeries for the refugee population and establishing virtual multidisciplinary team meetings, with collaborative teaching between teams both online and in-person. Shadi is on track to raise £15,000 to help develop and deliver this partnership. As well as securing over £6,000 in donations in the last couple of months, he has gathered a team of 10 people to run the Cambridge half marathon next year to help raise funds to support the project. The team will be collectively running the average distance a refugee travels to Amman. Shadi is always keen and eager to explore new fundraising ideas to support the project and is hoping to host a dinner and art exhibition in 2024.