{"id":4605,"date":"2020-07-16T14:04:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T14:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T12:38:43","slug":"mercy-ships-the-nhs-and-healthcare-systems-across-the-globe-for-alumni-by-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2020\/07\/16\/mercy-ships-the-nhs-and-healthcare-systems-across-the-globe-for-alumni-by-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy Ships, the NHS, and healthcare systems across the globe \u2013 For Alumni, By Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\"Patient<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Leo\u00a0Cheng\u00a0(LLM 2006)\u00a0is an\u00a0oral, maxillofacial, head and neck surgeon\u00a0who has spent most of his life travelling the globe\u00a0and\u00a0helping those from the poorest areas by performing free surgery and providing\u00a0much needed medical\u00a0care.\u00a0He has\u00a0now\u00a0turned his attention\u00a0and efforts\u00a0to COVID-19 and reflects on his experience so far with the NHS and his concerns for those without a national health system.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For nearly 20 years I have used my annual leave to serve with the Mercy Ships in West Africa,\u00a0providing free specialist Maxillofacial, Thyroid and Reconstructive surgery to the forgotten poor. Some of my outreach trips have been accompanied by my wife and our\u00a0two\u00a0daughters,\u00a0serving desperate patients together as a couple or a family.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mercy Ships operates the largest charity-run hospital ship in the world, delivering free, vital medical and surgical care to some of the world\u2019s least developed countries. This floating hospital is staffed by volunteers, who give their expertise for free to help patients with dental and eye problems, facial deformities like cleft lip and palate, tumours of the head, face, neck, limbs and body, club feet, child-birth injuries, burns and many other deformities and conditions.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I was serving the people of Senegal on board the Africa Mercy with my wife Hilary, a Minister from the Methodist Forest Circuit in North East London, when COVID19 started to spread round the world. The situation made it impossible for Mercy Ships to continue our field service\u00a0as the Africa Mercy is a specialist surgical unit and not equipped to deal with a highly contagious respiratory infection.\u00a0Within a few weeks of arriving back in the UK, I found myself working overtime in the race against the surge of coronavirus in several London Hospitals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Leo<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Apart from urgent\u00a0cancer and trauma\u00a0surgery for facial and head injury, my team and I are also providing surgical airway support for those seriously ill COVID-19 patients by making holes in their windpipes (tracheostomy) in order to facilitate their lung ventilation in COVID-19 hospitals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Operating with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has\u00a0been a learning process as we have to ensure adequate hydration while minimising toilet breaks (tricky at times!), clear articulations to avoid miscommunication with a muffled voice under the FFP3 (N99) mask and visor, alteration of surgical procedures\u00a0to reduce unnecessary generation of aerosol, extra procedures\u00a0and checks to reduce the risk of \u2018return to operating theatre\u2019,\u00a0and\u00a0extended personal hygiene against the invisible enemy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Although coronavirus has caused extraordinary disruption in all levels of society, it has sped up\u00a0the\u00a0embracing\u00a0of\u00a0technology and\u00a0the\u00a0internet,\u00a0especially in healthcare. Telephone and virtual clinics have become the \u2018new norm\u2019\u00a0and teleconferencing has become a major part of my clinical time\u00a0\u2013\u00a0connecting with our clinical and management teams, and multidisciplinary cancer team meetings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

During this pandemic, the NHS is looking after everyone in the safest way\u00a0it\u00a0can\u00a0and\u00a0has generated\u00a0the\u00a0capacity to deal with this unprecedented health emergency. Despite the regretful mortality reported daily\u00a0in the news, there are success stories where\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0patients\u00a0have\u00a0left the intensive care unit and walked out of the hospital.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone in our nation claps for the NHS and other key workers every week,\u00a0but the\u00a0NHS staff also clap for the recovered patients\u00a0who leave\u00a0hospital. For instance,\u00a0a grandmother of\u00a0three\u00a0recently beat coronavirus in time for her 74th\u00a0birthday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I am extremely grateful and thankful for the resources and provision of our nation\u2019s free world-class NHS, the availability of all basic essential utilities (e.g. electricity, water, gas), food and consumables on supermarkets\u2019 shelves, and sensible expert advice from public health professionals to combat the spread of this invisible enemy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My experience across the globe means that I know just how fortunate we are and how difficult this pandemic will be for others, especially those in parts of Africa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Africa is bracing for COVID-19.\u00a0I heard someone say\u00a0this: when the global north catches a cold, Africa gets pneumonia. This is because of\u00a0its\u00a0poor health care infrastructure\u00a0and\u00a0high levels of poverty\u00a0and lack of education.\u00a0You can see the\u00a0unbelievable and\u00a0huge inequality of health care resources and capabilities between the developed and developing world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Once the global situation allows, we will return to Africa and help strengthen healthcare systems emerging from the pandemic. The Africa Mercy was there for Guinea in 2016 after Ebola swept across West Africa and we will be there for West Africa after COVID-19.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this challenging time of lock down and uncertainties\u00a0with\u00a0the economy, employment\u00a0and\u00a0travel, I hope and pray that we as citizens\u00a0of this world\u00a0will come out of COVID-19 more loving and caring towards each other by\u00a0being generous in\u00a0helping others within and outside our own\u00a0community.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tell us what matters to\u00a0you\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We\u2019ve\u00a0introduced \u2018For Alumni, By Alumni\u2019, because who knows our alumni community better than…you guessed it, you!\u00a0We’d\u00a0love to hear from you<\/a>\u00a0with ideas for articles or online events that you’re interested in, you can give insight on, or maybe you ARE the story! Check out our\u00a0full line-up of\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0and watch back our\u00a0live events playlist<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Cheng (LLM 2006) is an oral, maxillofacial, head and neck surgeon who has spent most of his life travelling the globe and helping those from the poorest areas by performing free surgery and providing much needed medical care. He has now turned his attention and efforts to COVID-19 and reflects on his experience so far with the NHS and his concerns for those without a national health system. ","protected":false},"author":904,"featured_media":4613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,39,201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-cardiff-connect","category-for-alumni-by-alumni"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10038,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions\/10038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}