Italian delegation: Yemeni medical personnel need training [Archives:2006/920/Health]

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February 13 2006

Amel Mohammed Al-Ariqi
[email protected]

Al-Jumhori Hospital in Sana'a is considered one of the largest hospitals in Yemen, daily receiving thousands of patients, accident victims and emergency cases from various governorates and regions. The hospital recently hosted an Italian delegation of eight doctors and surgeons of varying specialties. They stayed at the hospital six days, performing many surgeries and diagnosing many patients.

Since the medical state at Al-Jumhori Hospital mostly reflects the medical state of many government hospitals, the Yemen Times interviewed delegation members about their experiences during their time there.

Bilateral cooperation

Delegation head, Professor Paola Leponelli, explained the reason behind their visit to Al-Jumhori Hospital, saying, “We received a request from Yemeni medical coordinator, Dr. Hathim Al-Murdhi, to visit the hospital. After a while, we came up with the idea of establishing bilateral cooperation between Al-Jumhori Hospital and the hospitals we represent in Rome.”

According to Leponelli, this cooperation will concentrate on providing Al-Jumhori with experts, training, medical equipment and rehabilitation of the hospital's medical personnel.

He pointed out that Yemen's medical state needs support and aid. “It is clear that Yemen's medical state needs help, so we hope such cooperation will not be centralized only between the hospitals, but will expand to become official cooperation between our government and Yemen's government.”

Randomness and lack of knowledge

Leponelli described the hospital's inner working mechanism as semi-random. “There is no arranged mechanism inside the hospital to receive patients. There is no way to link the patient with his or her doctor,” he wondered.

Such randomness negatively affects the hospital's service level. “We will do our best with our government and our medical administration to develop this cooperation to reflect upon the hospital's achievement and service level,” he said.

Leponelli referred to the existence of some medical equipment that has been in the hospital for years, however no one uses them, no one knows how to use them and no one knows the purpose of their existence at the hospital. On other hand, some departments lack tools and equipment.

According to Leponelli the surgeries performed by the Italian team were not rare or difficult; however, due to lack of experience by Yemeni medical staff in using such machines, some operations could not be performed by them. For example, Italian doctors performed many endoscopic surgeries using an instrument that has been at the hospital for a year but never used because no one knew how to use it. “Therefore, through this cooperation, we seek to implement mechanisms to improve the abilities of medical personnel inside the hospital to enable them to use medical tools and modern equipment.”

Leponelli said the hospital's doctors are characterized by good talent and experience, however they need more experience and they need to develop their knowledge of what is new in medicine. “In this regard, we are thinking of preparing training courses for hospital medical personnel. These courses could be in Italy or at Al-Jumhori Hospital, under Italian professors' supervision,” he added.

General surgeon professor Marco Lombardi referred to the new technique of using an endoscope by which many operations can be performed easily. “By using this technique, patients who were supposed to sleep in hospital beds for 10 days can now go home after two days,” he asserted. “This technique means less pain and fast recovery,” he added.

Lombardi confirmed that such a technique can be generalized in all surgical departments. “Providing the hospital with skilled human personnel able to use such techniques, besides financial support to buy such instruments, are the main things to generalize in the hospital.”

Family doctors and suffering women

Leponelli noted that there is no “family doctor or neighborhood doctor” in Yemen. The patient arrives at the hospital suffering a lot of pain due to his advanced condition. “To protect from disease in any society, medicines and medical care must be close to citizens. A hospital like Al-Jumhori is supposed to be for emergency cases.”

According to Leponelli, because Al-Jumhori is a government hospital, its medical personnel treat patients for free, which causes increased numbers of patients. “Huge numbers of patients arrive at the hospital, there are huge pressures and limited facilities and all that creates a state of mass confusion,” he said. “We [doctors] feel sorry for the poor patients,” he added.

Gynecology specialist Dr. Luigi Lorido described the medical state of Yemeni women as “very serious and difficult.” He said there are many advanced cases whose diagnoses were very late. “Most female patients I diagnosed were experiencing uterine tumors at 30 or 35 years old,” he noted.

He affirmed that such diseases are not found among European women under age 40. “My advice to Yemeni women is to do regular testing, like taking a sample from the tumor and measuring the hormone level to avoid such a serious problem.” According to Lorido, such tumors are treated easily and at minimal cost if discovered early.

He pointed to the problem of Yemeni tradition and costume that make it difficult for women to do regular medical testing, particularly with male doctors. “There is no awareness by Yemeni women of the importance of such tests. We experienced this problem 50 years ago in Italy, but we started to launch awareness campaigns through media, seminars and lectures. We established a health system to educate Italian women. Many women shared in raising the awareness of other women. Therefore, the tumors' rate in Italian women has been remarkably and sharply reduced.”

Referring to the skills of Yemeni gynecologists, Lorido said, “Whatever they undertake, they lack medical facilities and equipment. Sometimes there are no surgical gloves or threads.”

Protocols

Last Thursday Al-Jumhori Hospital and the Italian delegation representing Italian hospitals Sant'eugenio and the Traumatic Orthopedic Center (CTO) signed a protocol for medical cooperation. It includes 33 annual scholarships for Al-Jumhori medical personnel to receive training in Italy and aims to connect Al-Jumhori with Italy's largest hospitals.

Moreover, it states that Italian hospitals will receive Al-Jumhori's incurable cases for medical procedures. The protocol also aims to have Italian medical teams conduct medical operations at Al-Jumhori.
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