Cambodian healthcare professionals took part in an educational exchange with University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) and the University of Cumbria as part of the working relationship between the two organisations.
UHMBT and the University of Cumbria are working with Transform Health Cambodia (THC), a charity based in the UK, supporting educational exchanges with health services in Cambodia. Two colleagues from healthcare providers in Cambodia visited the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) from 16 to 20 June to gather information and share experience.
Dr Vang Chhong, Chief of Dentistry at Battambang Provincial Referral Hospital in Cambodia, and Mr Rady Yen, Chief Nurse at Roka Referral Hospital in Battambang in Cambodia, met with many different UHMBT colleagues during the visit.
Dan West, Deputy Chief Nurse, UHMBT, who has organised the visit, said: “Supporting this programme gives UHMBT colleagues the opportunity to share experience from our Cambodian colleagues, learning from an international perspective and providing colleagues with professional support and inspiration, using examples of great evidence-based practice at our Trust.
“During the visit we shared best practice on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), clinical, audit processes, quality assurance, data management, the development of specific roles within teams in the delivery of care, nursing care planning, safeguarding, rural health service delivery and the processes for instrument sterilisation.”
Dr Chhong and Mr Yen also met with Tabetha Darmon, the Trust’s Chief Nursing Officer, who has sponsored and supported the exchange.
Tabetha Darmon, the Trust’s Chief Nursing Officer, said: “Clinical care is evidence-based and supported with advanced technology in the UK this will be useful information exchange for colleagues who might not have the same sort of access to the resources we have in the UK. Our shared focus is about patient safety and the quality of care, and we have much to learn from each other on the similarity of this challenge from very different healthcare landscapes.”
Dr Chhong and Mr Yen arrived in the UK on Friday 5 June and after spending the first week of their study tour in Teesside, they are now visiting various locations in the North West. As well as visiting the RLI, they net with colleagues from the University of Cumbria, St John’s Hospice and a local GP surgery.
Transform Health Cambodia is a UK charity which provides healthcare education, training and clinical expertise to support Khmer colleagues improve healthcare in Cambodia.
The charity works with the directors of hospitals and community services across the Battambang province in Cambodia and the visiting professionals are from Battambang Provincial Referral Hospital and Roka Referral Hospital.
All of the charity’s directors and volunteers give their skills, time and pay for the privilege of helping Cambodia to reskill and recover from the legacy left from the atrocities of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Find out more about Transform Healthcare Cambodia.