Support for surgical training in war-torn countries

Surgical training for doctors in crisis zones and providing textbooks to medical students in Kenya are among the initiatives being supported by this year’s BMA Giving awards.

The association has today announced the recipients of its annual awards, which will see a total of £75,000 shared among 12 health and medical-related organisations.

The awards aim to recognise and provide financial support to a variety of UK-registered charities judged to align with the BMA’s values and wider objectives and are presided over by a committee of association members.

Among the chosen organisations to this year’s awards was the David Nott Foundation, which works to provide emergency trauma surgery skills to doctors working in regions affected by war or natural disasters.

Awarded £10,000 by the BMA, the funds will aim to support the foundation in delivering its Hostile Environment Surgical Training programme during a five-day course at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh later this year.

The awards will also see a grant of £5,000 handed to Book Aid International to assist its initiative to provide 2,500 brand-new medical textbooks to support the training and education of medical students at the Kenyan Medical Training college’s 72 campuses.

The association has also awarded £2,000 to the UK-branch of Doctors of the World, to help deliver its Safe Surgeries project, which it has previously supported. It aims to support GP practices in removing barriers to patients accessing services by training and working with frontline staff.

The awards committee further granted a total of £4,000 to the charity Doctors in Distress which seeks to provide safe and confidential support to members of the medical profession who are struggling with burnout or in crisis.

The grant will aim to support the charity’s work collecting the experiences of doctors and medical students for its StampOutSexism project, the aims of which echo the work of the BMA’s own Ending Sexism in Medicine pledge.

Chaired by Professor Dame Parveen Kumar, the BMA Giving committee is tasked with assessing applications for grants on behalf of the association’s finance committee.

With so many worthy and important entries, Prof Kumar said selecting entries was a challenge and an enormous privilege, adding that she hoped the awarded funds would make an important difference to this year’s chosen applications.

She said: ‘Having the opportunity to hear from so many talented and dedicated organisations and to be able to lend our support as an association is a hugely rewarding responsibility.

‘I was extremely impressed with all of the entries to this year’s awards and, as BMA Giving chair, would like to express my thanks and best wishes to every organisation in its future endeavours.’

Other grants made by this year’s awards include £10,000 to the ophthalmological charity Second Sight, with funds enabling the surgical treatment and post-operative support of 500 cataract patients in Bihar, India.

A further £10,000 has also been allocated to BMA Charities for medical students and refugee and asylum-seeking doctors in the UK who are facing financial hardship.

• BMA Charities £10,000
• Book Aid International £5,000
• Child Bereavement UK £7,390
• David Nott Foundation £10,000
• Doctors in Distress £4,000
• Doctors of the World UK £2,000 
• NICHE International £2,500 
• Olly’s Future £3,500
• On Call Africa £7,000
• Royal Medical Benevolent Fund £8,610
• Second Sight £10,000
• The Cameron Fund £5,000