Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first installment of the CEECP
Blog.
First off, what the heck is CEECP?
CEECP is a network of emergency providers who believe in what
our name says that access to equitable, high-quality emergency
care should be available to all.
You can read about the hows and the whys in our sections of the
website!
I am Dr. Steve Ferracuti, a rural and regional ER physician from
Canada who has been interested and active in global health work
for years. I am recently back from Ethiopia where I had the privilege to visit
colleagues in Addis Ababa and in Mekele, the capital of the Tigray
region.
The word colleagues is key as that is the relationship that we
strive for and assume with the nurses, students and physicians
that we work with.We are talking about colleagues in Gondar in northern Amhara,
Mekele in Tigray, Addis Ababa, the UAE, the US, Canada and
elsewhere.
As you all know there has been a devastating conflict in northern
Ethiopia which ended in November 2022. The conflict has had
and continues to have extremely deleterious effects on the
peoples of Tigray and northern Amhara (and other parts of
Ethiopia as well). It is estimated that hundreds of thousands were
killed and there have been an enormous number of injured and
displaced. There have also been a very large number of women
subjected to sexual violence.
Malnutrition remains a reality for an unacceptable number of
people (especially children), particularly in the internally displaced
population. The health care system is severely impacted. Facilities and
ambulances were destroyed and looted. Many providers were
killed and many have been displaced.
The needs from pre-hospital care through health centre care and
hospital care and on to rehab are real. All of this is superimposed upon the reality that some aspects of health care including, or perhaps especially, emergency medicine
were already in a developing stage prior to the conflict. And the world’s attention has moved on from this conflict and its
aftermath.
Next week I will share some more details regarding our hoped for
collaborations with our colleagues in northern Ethiopia.
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