A project aimed at sharing diabetes know-how with nurses in The Gambia has been awarded £6,400 by the Welsh Assembly Government.

The funding will support exchange visits for staff working in diabetes in both Swansea and Gambia. The staff will work together focusing on wound care, auditing and the development of patient information posters. This training will build on the success of the previous project which provided educational resources, via eLearning, on the management of diabetic foot care.

Ros Thomas, Swansea Deputy Head of Podiatry, said: “The Diabetic Foot is a global health problem; Type 2 Diabetes and its associated foot disease is increasing in The Gambia. A link was set up between Swansea and The Gambia to aid knowledge in the Diabetic foot using an e−learning module.”

Picture: Ros Thomas dressing a diabetic leg ulcer during a visit to The Gambia

“The e-learning module was a great success; an audit of staff knowledge at the Royal Victoria Hospital in The Gambia showed a 60% increase in knowledge and understanding of the diabetic foot after using the e-learning module.” Terence Gorvett, Research and Development and IT Lead in Podiatry, added: “We are very happy to have been awarded this funding. We hope to build on the success of the e-learning module by using the funding for exchange training visits. Two nurses from The Gambia will be visiting us to gain experience and knowledge on the care of a person with diabetes.”

“The visiting nurses will get the opportunity to see first-hand how patients with diabetes are managed in Swansea. Plus, the module set up to accompany their visit can be taken back to their place of work and used as a reference tool to educate students and qualified staff in wound care and diabetes.”

Picture: Relatives camp outside the hospital as it is too expensive to travel back and for.

The project will start with an initial visit by Ros and Terence to Gambia in August 2010 aiming to further identify training needs ahead of the Gambia nurses visit to Swansea.

Wed 3rd Feb. 2010.

The Vault, Swansea, doors: 7pm, first auction: 8pm

Late licence, live music, drinks promos and a few very special surprises…

On Wednesday the 3rd of February the Swansea-Gambia Link hosts the Auction of Promises at The Vault under No Sign Wine Bar. Last year was an outstanding success raising over £3000, and this year we hope to do even better!

We’re happy to take group bids on the bigger prizes, so get together with a few friends and you could have surf lessons, a pancake breakfast with Peter Davies or a week in plush Galway seaside cottage.

As well as the auction we have plenty of entertainment including Dave Williams playing live, drinks promotions, a late licence and some very special surprises that we’ll reveal on the night!

On Saturday 5th December 2009 8 of Swansea's very own are heading out to Banjul.

Heading there for 2 weeks they will be the latest group from what is now quite an established tradition. They will be there to observe ward rounds, ITU, paediatrics, neonatal care, psychiatry, and rural primary care, in which the group has an especially strong interest. They are hoping to bring out various items of medical equipment, books, and anything else of use that they can get their hands on (if you think you can help, please contact them at ).

Please click here to read more.

They will also be uploading blog posts here and photos here.

Tissue processor ready for shipping from Swansea

A tissue processor that will be used to markedly speed up the preparation of histology samples has arrived in The Gambia after being donated by the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust. It will hopefully increase the number of samples that can be investigated and decrease reporting time at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital.

Momodou Jammeh of the Pathology Department in The Gambia said, "The tissue processor is just fantastic & is different from the one I have in my lab at Kotu. Thanks to every one who has made this possible."

Prof Steve Allen of the School of Medicine at Swansea University said, "Delighted that the tissue processor has finally made it ... and it works! Martin Thomas here put in a huge amount of effort (over a considerable period of time!) to make that possible. Thanks to Alan at THET for making the payment and getting the discount."

Dr Paul Griffiths of the Pathology Department, Morriston Hospital, described the tissue processor and its importance. "It is a machine which takes cassettes containing tissue samples (e.g. punch biopsies of skin disorders, small biopsies taken through endoscopes, selected samples of larger specimens removed by surgeons) and processes them through a range of solvents using a computerised programme which can be modified according to need. This fixes the tissue, making it firm and preventing decomposition and, after going through a selection of alcohol solutions and xylene, allows the tissue to be embedded in a wax block. The wax provides the support to allow very thin sections to be cut on a microtome (around 3-4 microns or 3-4 thousandths of a millimetre) and then stained with haematoxylin and eosin. The processing stage takes around 16 hours and is usually done overnight. For the last 3 years, the lab at Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital has had no processor and staff have had to come in during the evening and night to move baskets of cassettes by hand from one jar of solvent to the next. Hopefully those days are now over!"

Dr Griffiths also tells us that, "A new Nikon camera with an attachment for taking pictures down the microscope will assist in collecting images of pathological lesions for teaching purposes, and for transmitting images of specimens which are proving difficult to diagnose, thus making available to the single pathologist based at RVTH the combined specialised expertise of the ten pathologists based at Swansea."

In the same shipment were a collection of medical books collected and sorted by David Abankwa for the medical school library in the University of The Gambia.

Martin Thomas prepares the tissue processor

Professor John MacDermot of the Tropical Health and Education Trust will be visiting The Gambia and teaching in Medicine and Pharmacology for 3 weeks in February 2010.