Health partnerships
Health is becoming an increasingly global issue, as recognised in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs provide a clear and inspiring vision of a shared and sustainably developed world, with no one left behind. We share this vision and have been working for the last decade to realise it.
Equal healthcare partnerships help to facilitate the flow of ideas, information and innovation – providing opportunities for healthcare professionals of all disciplines and levels, individually or in teams, to improve health services at home and in other countries. At their core our partnerships are about inspiring, equipping and supporting people to make a difference.Healthcare systems are increasingly under pressure in most countries – caught between seemingly endlessly rising demand and limited resources. However, as resources become more stretched, new solutions emerge.
In many low- and middle-income countries complex procedures are undertaken with a fraction of the resources deployed in the UK healthcare system, and often in much more challenging environments, providing UK healthcare professionals with inspiration on how to do more with less.
In the UK system multi-disciplinary teamwork is well developed, drawing on the diverse expertise within the whole team – whether from surgeons, doctors, nurses or non-clinical staff. By sharing skills, knowledge and experience lives can be saved and outcomes improved, while at the same time motivating and empowering staff.
For the last ten years we have drawn on national UK insights and procedures and the expertise of Cambridge’s world-leading healthcare to support projects in Botswana, El Salvador, Myanmar, the Philippines, Uganda and many other countries.
As we have developed and refined our systems, we have shared what we have learned with our strategic public and third sector partners in the UK – contributing to policy documents including the NHS, DoH and DfID Framework for Voluntary Engagement in Global Health.
“Cambridge Global Health Partnerships has been an important example nationally, and one that I have often referred others to.”
Lord Nigel Crisp Co-Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, September 2016