A scientist from De Montfort University (DMU) in the UK has travelled more than 3,000 miles to help improve medical services at a hospital in Ghana, Africa.  

As part of a project led by the charity FREED UK, Marilena Ioannou, joined a team of 20 medical professionals, teachers, and students to help review resources and services at Nandom Hospital in the upper west region of Ghana.

The group was separated into a laboratory team, dental team, school and orphanage team, and hospital kitchen team to oversee a series of projects all funded by UK donations.

The Biomedical Senior Lecturer at DMU in Leicester, England, worked alongside a four women lab team made up of biomedical scientists: Cathy Nestoruk of the University Hospital Coventry; Azra Khan of Nuffield Health in Warwickshire; and Lisa Brown of Worcestershire NHS Trust.

The team spent a week at Nandom Hospital working alongside laboratory manager, Benjamin Botchway, giving feedback on how to improve the hospital's testing facilities and recommendations on areas for investment.

Marilena said: "The opportunity to improve diagnosis of disease in a developing country was the major driving force for all of us.  We all hope to return to Ghana next year to continue our work and support sustainable change in healthcare provision."

The team also identified a room in the hospital to convert into a laboratory which aims to help reduce the amount of misdiagnoses of patients. The laboratory will have improved facilities to detect a wider variety of infectious germs, therefore giving doctors more conclusive test results.  

DMU has also provided textbooks and microscopes for the FREED UK project.

FREED UK (www.freeduk.org) is a charity based in Northampton, England, that supports the poor community of Nandom and strives to support the provision of healthcare and education, in partnership with FREED in Ghana.

Dery Tuopar, founder of FREED UK, said: "The impact has been absolutely huge. The hospital has been so busy because they know about the work we are doing. People are now moving away from traditional methods of treatment and coming to the hospital which is now a centre of excellence."