The Zambia Anaesthesia Development Project (ZADP) commenced in 2012 to support the training of Zambian anaesthetists at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. Zambia has a population of 14 million and a life expectancy of only 57 years. Three quarters of the population live in poverty.

Zambia suffers from an extreme lack of anaesthetists. A third of all disease needs some form of surgical treatment but unfortunately places with the most need, like Zambia, also have the poorest access. Safe surgery clearly requires safe anaesthesia. In Zambia there hadn’t been a single doctor trained in anaesthetics since 1964.

A 4-year training programme in anaesthesia was introduced in 2011 and there are currently 18 doctors enrolled. Several doctors have completed the programme and have taken up essential roles within Zambia. But, even now, there are only 30 anaesthetic doctors within the whole country. This shortage results is an unacceptable number of deaths due to lack of access to safe surgery and unnecessary suffering due to poor pain relief.

The programme is growing, but needs ongoing support until the current crisis situation has improved. At any one time there are 4-6 international anaesthetic doctors volunteering with ZADP. Our role is to provide clinical teaching, encourage the development of protocols, and guide quality improvement and research. The focus of our project is patient safety. The delivery of safe anaesthesia is key. We are training doctors who will become future healthcare leaders in Zambia.

In time this project will become self-sustaining and will no longer require the expertise of anaesthetists from abroad. We have unfortunately not yet reached this point. Our current funding ends in May. We need your help to continue this valuable work.

Remember, doctors volunteering in a resource poor setting gain valuable experience which we bring back to benefit our own healthcare systems.

We really appreciate your help
ZADP volunteers