Anyone interested in developing countries?

[shaz111]

Hey just to add too this! I alway felt the whole "ooooh i wanna go to africa aand help orphan kids" abit desperate, cliched, and to be honest full of middle class guilt!

Fair enough going to third world countries and helping out their would be a great experience for yourself! But to be honest any real help you do; could be time much better spent here. Look everyone need's treatent, everyone needs doctors! Here you would be able to treat many more patients, as here you have the infrastructure, (ahem) trust in the system, and the faccilities to actually treat people. In poor countries i doubt you could say the same.

That is not to say that you shouldnt want to work abroad, for one if I ever do become a doctor, I certainly wouldnt shy away from an oppertunity to work in warzones / areas which have been struck by natural disasters, as aid is NEEDED! But there's no point when there is somewhat of a status quo!

So in conclusion help people here! After all the goverment have paid £200,000 to train you!

[E-man07]

Medicine is a secondary degree (as in it is not extremely needed for simple, basic development) for many reasons, 2 be sincere, juz a few docs r needed in developin countries for (again) many reasons. Some developing countries already hav enough docs, some dont.
This thread woz meant 2 inform me bout "wat a doc could do" not for some argument as i am still buildin my knowledge in these areas.

[Pammy]

I do think that developing countries need doctors. To say they don't need doctors is to say noone needs doctors. Sure, there all all the infectious diseases, many of which are avoidable by relatively "simple" measures: clean water, sufficient food, rehydration solutions, vaccinations, education, ARVs, mosquito spraying.
But they also have all the other diseases! People there suffer from genetic diseases, diabetes, cancer, accidents, and everything else that people go to hospital here for. And especially if progress is made with the measures to eradicate or at least dampen the infectious diseases, and if life extectancy increases, than things like cancer will suddenly have much more of an impact. Complicated cases demand the attention of a doctor, not a nurse or midwife - unless you are saying that these countries should happily accept a much lower standard of healthcare forever.

[E-man07]

Wat I'm sayin is that for the moment, wat is needed is infrastructural development and basic healthcare development like improved hygiene... If ppl die or suffer for more complicated healthcare issues, it is not a big problem as it will be virtually impossible 2 treat ppl with such problems anyway when the infrastrucure and political administration is unstable (and btw we need less ppl. For example, there are far too many ppl in Nigeria). Imagine tryin to treat diabetic patients when there r no dialysis centres or equipment (neither is the government concerned or bothered about it). When political, infrasturctural, economical stability and "betterness" happens, docs can then have d chance 2 use their skills 4 more fulfillin stuff (not things like distributin mosquito nets).

[Pammy]

Sure, but you were asking what an individual doctor could do. Of course, the major public health measures are all-important, the largest changes will arise at a primary-care level, and what you can do as an individual is extremely limited in scope and impact.
However, the way I see it is that a qualified, experienced doctor on a volunteer placement can have a positive impact. I am not talking about the "let's look after a few orphans" volunteer-tourism type over-zealous helper syndrome that someone else has already criticised. MSF only accept people with 3 years experience of work as a doctor, for which there are good reasons. I do feel though that if you go for long enough to integrate into given structures, work with them not against them, and are keen to share your knowledge and experience, then you can do good just as a doctor here does good, simply by doing his/her job. A doctors is a doctor, no matter whether in a developing or a developed country, no? So basically what I am saying is that while you won't influence the path of development or the health needs of an entire nation, you'd still assist some individuals, just as you would here - as long as you don't steal a job from a local, run a one-man show or subvert the existing health care arrangements. Also, the NHS used to recruit doctors from developing countries all the time – wouldn’t it be time we sent some of ours in exchange?

[Gizmo says -]

e-man is from over there, mind (i fink, e-man?).

[Faust]

This is a question I think about alot...

Western doctors/"voluntourists" going to developing countries to act as glorified delivery men to give people a few pills and malaria nets obviously isn't very cost-effective.

You could probably train 1000 community health workers in some developing countries for what it costs to train 1 doctor in the UK.

However, it is possible to justify sending a doctor to certain developing countries if they have specialist skills that are severely lacking in that country.

For example Malawi had no orthopaedic surgeons until 1996. Prof Chris Lavy was the only orthopaedic surgeon in Malawi then. He almost single handedly created a programme to train local medical graduates in orthopaedic surgery and ordinary local people as "orthopaedic clinical officers" to diagnose and treat conservatively. An amazing story of how someone with the right medical skills and non-medical skills can have such a huge and permanent impact on a countries healthcare system.

CBM International - EN - CBM Orthopaedic Surgeon Awarded OBE - "Ten years of work in Malawi were worthwile!"

SpringerLink - Journal Article

Dr. Edward Nahim is the only Psychiatrist in the whole of Sierra Leone. He makes a massive contribution to the mental health infrastructure in Sierra Leone.

The Lancet Student Archive Mental health in Sierra Leone

AfricaNews - Sierra Leone set to improve mental health - RSS english

I reckon there are a few ways a doctor can use their specialist skills to have a lasting impact on a developing country

1- get involved in medical politics (no sun tan lotion required)

2- get involved in "orphan" research (no sun tan lotion required)

3- using specialist expertise to get involved in setting up and running training programmes and health infrastructure in countries which lack such infrastructures for specialist services - orthopaedics, psychiatry, opthalmology etc.

[Frank E]

Not really interested in deveolping countries, though I live in a country which is developing ... backwards.