The Director for Africa Kids Operating Room, Rosemary Mugwe, has again expressed commitment at the 62nd West African College of Surgeons’ annual scientific conference to advocate for children’s surgery to be included at the center of healthcare’s promises across the region.
Kids Operating Room (KOR) is a Scottish Global Organization founded in 2018 that is working in Africa with its mission to support local pediatrics and surgeons through the provision of training and infrastructure to ensure they use their talents to care for their own nations’ children.
In 2020, KOR developed an action plan to increase capacity for paediatric surgery in sub-Sahara West Africa. The exercise is expected to enable at least 750,000 children to gain access to life-saving or life-changing care that would otherwise have not been available to them.
The group has been able to create 120 centers of excellence across Africa, each with state-of-the-art pediatrics operating rooms, and has trained 150 paediatric surgeons and 100 pediatric anesthetists, among others.
In Liberia, Kids OR is currently working with one of the country’s biggest referral hospitals, the John F. Kennedy, which is owned and operated by the government, to help equip their operation rooms with modern state-of-the-art equipment.
Making a presentation at the 62nd West African College of Surgeons annual scientific conference, held at the Ministerial Complex in Monrovia, Mugwe noted that the inclusion of children surgery at the center of health care delivery will help address the many challenges children face that are treatable.
“We are supporting countries to strengthen their health systems through infrastructure equipment and health workforce development through provision of scholarships for paediatric surgery training,” Mugwe stated.
“Our aim is for children to access timely, affordable and quality surgery for children, regardless of their social and economic background,” Mugwe said.
She maintained that every child matters; as such, no child should die or live in disability as a result of a surgically treatable condition.
Mugwe said she wants the government, through the Ministry of Health, to support and train pediatrics surgeons to help transform the health system, specifically for children.
“We have a project at the JFK to equip and install the state-of-the-art operating room for children with over three thousand equipment specifically for children, aimed at allowing children to have their own surgical operation center,” she explained.
According to her, children need to be considered by the government at the center of healthcare provision, and urged the Ministry of Health to incorporate children’s surgery in their health program while developing their national surgery plan.
She observed that it is important for children to have their own space in the area of surgical operation, which will allow healthcare workers to provide proper health care for them.
KOR is working in about twenty-six countries in Africa with an endeavor to meet its mission and vision.
The conference, which started on March 21 and ends March 24, has brought together surgeons from across West Africa.
In remarks, the Nurse Anesthetist at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital Operating Room, Ama A. A. Taplah, expressed gratitude to KOR for their contribution to Liberia through the JFK, specifically the surgeons, whom they continue to train and work with.
“We want to appreciate Kids OR for the opportunity. They have created a compensative environment for our operation, and we are also grateful for the sustainable partnership between the two institutions,” he added.
