RT Journal
A1 Furnas DW, Gilchrist D, Rees TD, Wood A
T1 SUrgical safaris with the east africa flying doctor service
JF Archives of Surgery
JO Archives of Surgery
YR 1979
FD October 1
VO 114
IS 10
SP 1143
OP 1148
DO 10.1001/archsurg.1979.01370340049009
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.1979.01370340049009
AB • A few hundred small mission and government hospitals serve the 20 million people who live in rural East Africa. The physician-patient ratio is 1:25,000. Surgical support to many of these hospitals is provided through the East Africa Flying Doctor Service of the African Medical and Research Foundation. Small aircraft that are coordinated by a wide radio network bring surgical capability to a maximum number of patients in this area of 1,300,000 sq km (500,000 sq miles). The clinical problems, differential diagnoses, operative decisions, risk, and complications of surgical care all have a distinctly African quality. The working conditions and variety and magnitude of problems provide a stimulating challenge. Surgical safaris are a catalyst for gaining acceptance of modern scientific methods by Africa's tradition-oriented tribesmen.(Arch Surg 114:1143-1148, 1979)