The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is officially launching a new capacity building project in South Sudan, its first venture in the newly formed Republic of South Sudan. Teams of volunteers will deliver a basic medical training curriculum to junior doctors whose current postgraduate education is extremely limited.
The 3 year programme is expected to reach up to 120 doctors, equipping them with the skills to work effectively in community postings or to progress to further speciality training.
This teaching will be done in partnership with a local faculty of clinicians at the Juba Teaching Hospital. Health indices in South Sudan are among the worst in the world and, since emerging from years of civil war, the country has struggled to develop adequate infrastructure. As a result, outside support is essential for provision of postgraduate training as there are too few local senior doctors with the necessary experience to provide this unaided.
This is an RCP project, however the RCP has received expressions of interest from other Royal Medical Colleges to provide a wider curriculum in future.
At the launch, being held at the RCP on 16 December, Sir Richard Thompson, RCP President will speak and meet other key programme stakeholders.
RCP International Director Prof David Warrell said:
We are delighted that the generosity of the RCP's Trustees has enabled us to collaborate with our friends in Juba to provide this essential training for South Sudan’s newly qualified doctors. Many of our fellows and members have responded enthusiastically to the President’s call for volunteers and it is particularly encouraging that our initiative has prompted other Royal Colleges to join in. We look forward eagerly to the launch of the teaching in February 2014.
For further information, please contact Morgan Evans, RCP communications and new media adviser, on 020 3075 1468 / 0779 508 8253, or email Morgan.Evans@rcplondon.ac.uk