GECCo meets GASOC

Written by Florence Kinder, Major Trauma Clinical Fellow, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust GECCo were delighted to be invited to deliver a workshop at the international GASOC conference in Manchester in October 2024. GASOC – or Global Anaesthesia, Surgery & Obstetrics Collaboration – is nearly a decade old and has a focus to “engage responsibly and impactfully in global surgery”. The session … Read More

Developing emergency medicine in Pakistan: cHALO’s 1st international conference in Lahore

Written by Anisa Jafar, ST7 in Emergency Medicine & Houghton Dunn Fellow, North West deanery & University of Manchester Edited by Philip Delbridge For the linguists amongst you the wordplay of the 1st international cHALO conference will not be lost. For the rest: in Urdu, “chalo” means “let’s go”. And what could be more fitting an acronym for an emergency medicine (EM) conference whose … Read More

Teaching, learning and growing in Rwanda

Written by Dr Zenira Elbasheer, ST4 Emergency Medicine, North West deanery Edited by Anisa Jafar Rwanda is a relatively small, landlocked country in East Africa. Known affectionately as Le Pays des Mille Collines  or ‘land of a thousand hills’, the country boasts breathtaking landscapes including rolling hills, and volcanic mountains. Kigali, its capital, and where I was based for 6 weeks, is a … Read More

Humanitarian Careers Fair

Written by Naomi Richardson Back in February, GECCo had the pleasure of being invited to the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) Careers Fair at the University of Manchester. This event brought together local and international humanitarian and human rights organisations to speak with students about life in these sectors and how they could get involved.  We set up our … Read More

Sudan’s 2023/2024 conflict: the impact on emergency care 

Written by Dr Zenira Elbasheer, ST4 Emergency Medicine, North West deanery Edited by Anisa Jafar & Ahmed E O  Ali Since 15th April 2023, when intense fighting suddenly broke out in the capital Khartoum and later spread to other states, Sudan has become one of the most urgent healthcare emergencies. The country is facing the largest internal displacement crisis with 8.1 million people … Read More

Global health map – connecting UK emergency care practitioners

Everyone loves a happy ending, right? Well here’s one for you – perhaps really more of a beginning anyway! Remember we updated you last year about project in collaboration with RCEM to map global health engagement amongst emergency care practitioners in the UK which made its way into the European Journal of Emergency Medicine? Well, a mere 2 and a half years since the 2021 … Read More

Providing emergency care in Gaza in the winter of 2023

Written by Dr Chris Hook, Emergency Physician, Bristol Royal Infirmary Edited by Silas Webb & Charlotte Nichols Trigger warning – this post contains descriptions of injuries and fatalities which some readers may find especially difficult to read  Dr Chris Hook is a Bristol-based emergency and pre-hospital medicine doctor. He recently  returned from working in the Gaza strip as a Médecins … Read More

Gaza: the emergency care voice rescued from a sea of politics

Written & edited by Anisa Jafar, James Chan, Joanna Quinn, Erin Hamill & Angharad Spencer-Matewere Emergency care practitioners are known for creating order from chaos, being pragmatic amidst difficult circumstances, advocating for patients and being bold when others cannot.  We are proud to treat without judgment, cut through the noise and aren’t afraid to call out our colleagues when we … Read More

The Bristol-Nanyuki partnership: “those who sim together, win together”

Written by Dr Olivia Duffy, Global EM Fellow, Bristol Royal Infirmary Edited by Anisa Jafar & Frankie Cackett Photo credits: Dr Olivia Duffy and Mr Mwangi Ishmael, shared with participant consent In summer 2023 my role as global health fellow in emergency medicine at the Bristol Royal Infirmary saw me spending 6 weeks in Nanyuki Hospital (northwest of Mount Kenya) under the … Read More

GECCo in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine

You might remember back in 2021 when a team connected via GECCo launched a project in collaboration with RCEM to map global health engagement amongst emergency care practitioners in the UK. Since then, lots of work has been going on: a qualitative study is nearing completion and has been presented around the world and the map itself (which has been batting away … Read More