CONNAUGHT HOSPITAL BURNS RECONSTRUCTIVE AND HAND SURGERY UNIT
After our success in Ghana, Resurge Africa had the capacity to spread its goal of transforming the face of reconstructive surgery in West Africa to another country. Since 2010, we have been working to transform the face of reconstructive surgery in Sierra Leone and have supported the training of many staff at both Connaught Hospital, Freetown and Holy Spirit Hospital, Makeni. These include Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Nurses and Therapists. All these healthcare staff are making a real difference to patients requiring reconstructive burns and hand surgery.
Connaught Hospital now has a functioning Reconstructive Burns and Hand Surgery Service delivered by Abdullah Jalloh, Plastic Surgeon, Eric Wongo, Plastic Surgeon and Mohammed Kargbo, Anaesthetist, all of whom had their specialist training in Ghana funded by Resurge Africa. In addition to providing a reconstructive burns and hand surgery care to the population of Freetown and its surrounding areas, they have also been able to respond to major burns incidents in the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia. Their ability to reach their full potential has been constrained by typical challenges in countries like Sierra Leone. These include some limitations in access to the busy operating theatres at Connaught Hospital and having sufficient surgical instruments and disposable items due to funding challenges faced by the health system and patients.
Fortunately, a major development is happening that has the potential to transform Reconstructive Burns and Hand Surgery services at Connaught Hospital. This is the building of the new Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Unit. Building commenced in early 2024 thanks to funding provided by two local petroleum companies, Leonco and National Petroleum. Our ambition is to build and equip the unit to a standard that compares favourably with other similar units in West Africa. It will have 16 paediatric beds/cots, 12 adult beds, a High Dependency Unit, 2 operating theatres and further rooms to support the Multi-Disciplinary Team required to provide a comprehensive Burns Service.
Handover of the unit is due for late 2024/early 2025. Resurge Africa is working hard on fund raising to ensure the unit is equipped to a high standard. We also aim to meet the cost of disposable items during the first 5 years of service. Working with partners, we have set ourselves the challenge of raising 1 million US dollars, half to equip the unit to enable it to open and start to deliver patient care and half to maintain adequate levels of consumables for the first 5 years. There are many opportunities to provide support including one-off donations via a website, sponsoring individual items of equipment or spreading donations over the next 5 years.
