Health Partnerships Scheme Grant: Global Links Consortium

Interested in sharing your skills in Africa?  We are currently recruiting UK paediatricians to fill a variety of placements as part of our new Global Links Volunteer Programme.  Find out how you can get involved.

Dr Mark Huddart, volunteering in Ethiopia

The RCPCH has been awarded an HPS Volunteering Grant of £830,000 to facilitate the establishment of a Global Links Consortium for the exchange of child health professionals between the UK and Africa.

The Consortium will be run in partnership with the Faculty of Paediatrics, West African College of Physicians, the Kenya Paediatric Association and the Uganda Paediatric Association. It will involve volunteering and exchange schemes between the UK and Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. 

Over a three-year period the programme will:

• facilitate 36 UK doctors to undertake 6-12 month volunteer placements in Africa
• facilitate 18 African doctors to undertake either 6-12 month paid placements or 6-week observation visits in UK hospitals
• wherever possible embed long-term exchange programmes within broader Health Links between paired UK and African institutions

The project aims to improve the quality of care to sick infants and children admitted to Consortium hospitals in low-income countries and in the health services provided in the community. 

To achieve this, the RCPCH will work with each UK paediatrician, our African partners and placement hospitals to identify capacity building objectives.  These might include training local healthcare staff, developing new services and transferring skills in paediatric education.

In turn, African doctors coming to the UK under the scheme will gain specific clinical experience through NHS posts or shorter specialist attachments. They will also receive training in paediatric education, clinical audit, clinical governance, quality improvement methodology, healthcare leadership and service development.

UK hospitals will be encouraged to identify how receiving African doctors will develop their capacity in global child health.

How you can get involved

36 trainees or consultants are needed to undertake 6-12 month capacity building placements in Africa.

If you are interested in sharing your skills in Africa, visit our Global Links Volunteer Programme webpage

Read our Frequently Asked Questions (DOC, 145KB, 2 pages)

Download an application form(DOC, 126KB, 4 pages) or complete an online application.

For further information about taking part in the scheme please contact Peter Nash, Global Links Manager (Peter.Nash@rcpch.ac.uk, tel: 020 7092 6016).