Although the hospitals and clinics in the growing tourist hotspot of Cape Verde are clean and professional, they are still in desperate need of some of the most basic equipment.
The Cape Verde Foundation is calling on private and public healthcare providers to give urgent donations, from large medical equipment such as x-ray machines and MRI scanners right down to simple items, such as plastic gloves and sharps bins. The doctors and nurses are currently struggling to fulfil their duty of care without the most basic of medical equipment. equipment. With the help of Mandy Galley, a director of the Foundation and leader of this initiative, it is hoped that we can begin to rectify that situation.
Working with the Hospital Agostinho Neto in Praia, Cape Verde’s capital city located on the southern coast of Santiago Island, the Foundation has developed a wish list highlighting the equipment it is most desperately in need of. This includes:
- Image intensifier (Fluoroscopic Machine )
- Cardio monitor with
- Portable x-ray machine
- ECG machine
- Invasive and non-invasive mechanic ventilator
- Gasometric machine
- Gurney
- Inox medicine cabinet
- Vacum cleaner
- Nebulizer
They are also looking for donations of x-ray, MRI and mammogram machines, incubators, ultrasound, PET and CT scanners and vaccine fridges. The Cape Verde Foundation will organise the logistics and shipping of the medical equipment to Cape Verde, which is expected to depart Beverley on 26th September and arrive in Praia on the 5th November.
To source the equipment, the Foundation is working with Dr Alistair Robertson, an aid worker at Yorkshire-based charity the Jacob’s Well Appeal, which sends medical, educational, agricultural and disaster relief to third world countries. It is also asking public and private healthcare practices around the world to donate what they can. In return, the Foundation is helping to arrange placements for young or retired professional doctors to do a sabbatical or some voluntary work in Cape Verde’s hospitals and clinics. So far, the donations have been generous, totalling 1,292 sacks, boxes and pallets of medical equipment, disposables and medicines. It’s an incredible show of generosity from Jacob’s Well and their suppliers, with the various items – from surgical theatre items and syringes to hospital trolleys and nebulisers – amounting to an estimated total value of £269,521.23.
For more information or to find out how you can help, get in touch with us today on our contact page