AMREF’s Flying Doctors
AMREF’s Flying Doctor Service is the largest and best-known Air Ambulance Service in East Africa, providing 24 hour evacuation services across the region.The income generated through the Flying Doctor’s air ambulance program supports AMREF’s clinical outreach activities across the continent.
Surgical Outreach and Clinical Care
Founded in 1957, AMREF was the first health organization in Africa to bring expert surgical care to remote communities. Today the program continues to be a critical part of improving health across the continent.
Africa suffers from a serious health care worker shortage, particularly with highly skilled professionals like surgeons. The crisis is also most severe in rural areas where the majority of people in Africa live. For example in Western countries like Canada nearly 11,000 surgeries are performed annually for every 100,000 people. In sub-Saharan Africa there are just 295.
To improve access to specialized surgical care AMREF’s Flying Doctors run 150 surgical outreach camps every year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Specialists in 23 different fields, including general surgery, pediatrics, urology, orthopedics and gynecology, conduct more than 7,000 operations annually.
The surgical procedures range from cleft palate and lip repairs, treating burns and repairing deformities caused by leprosy and polio.
AMREF’s Flying Doctors also run Safe Motherhood Camps, where AMREF surgeons perform 1,200 fistula repair operations every year. Fistulas are devastating injuries women sustain during unsafe childbirth.
The challenges of performing the surgeries in remote hospitals and health facilities are immense. Water supplies are scarce and power cuts happen often, but AMREF experts also provide more than 1,700 hours of formal training to 1,300 doctors and 4,000 nurses and other mid-level health professionals every year.
Training the doctors and nurses in the remote hospitals and health centres where they work ensures the experience replicates their everyday environment—regardless of how difficult.
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