RCP members are working with west African colleagues in Freetown to deliver an intensive clinical skills course which supports existing efforts to build resilience against infectious disease outbreaks.
The week-long course began on 1 May at Freetown’s Connaught Hospital, Sierra Leone’s principal adult referral centre, and marks the first time the RCP has worked in the country. It is also the eighteenth and final course of the 3-year M-PACT programme: an RCP / West African College of Physicians (WACP) collaboration aimed at combatting infectious diseases through increasing access to high-quality, up-to-date clinical training.
As with preceding M-PACT courses in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, this week’s training combines classroom-based teaching on advances in the management of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola and Lassa fever with workshops on medical leadership and practical sessions on the hospital’s wards. Teaching is split between members of the two colleges and representatives from Sierra Leone’s national infectious disease control programmes.
... training combines classroom-based teaching on advances in the management of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola and Lassa fever with workshops on medical leadership and practical sessions on the hospital’s wards
The 33 physicians attending the Freetown course, drawn from referral centres across the country, will benefit from several small revisions made to the curriculum as a result of previous participants’ feedback. One such revision is the addition of case presentations, during which participants discuss a recent, particularly challenging case of their own with the group.
Commenting on the course, RCP president Professor Jane Dacre said:
I’m delighted that we’re working in Freetown for the first time. To be able to reach an entirely new cohort of doctors, while supporting Sierra Leone’s efforts to build resilience against infectious diseases, seems a fitting conclusion to the M-PACT programme.
Dr Gibrilla Deen, course convener and hospital care manager at Connaught Hospital, added:
The importance of projects such as M-PACT which support Sierra Leone in building resilience cannot be overestimated.
