DISCARDED medical equipment from Glasgow's hospitals is being used to save lives in Malawi.
The health board has donated vitally needed diagnostic equipment, which has been upgraded in the city's hospitals, to detect and treat oesophageal cancer.
The equipment is also being used to help people struck down by a common infection, schistosomiasis, which is associated with poor sanitation and dirty water.
A team of medics, including Dr Adrian Stanley from Glasgow's Royal Infirmary, travelled to Malawi, in southern Africa, to train staff how to use the endoscopic equipment.
Patients in the north of Malawi currently have to make an arduous five hour journey for life-saving treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre.
The equipment and training will allow people living in the north of Malawi to be treated locally at Mzuzu Central Hospital. The plan is to create a permanent, sustainable unit.
Staff also travelled to Blantyre to help run a three-day therapeutic endoscopy course for Malawian endoscopists at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons covered the travel and accommodation, NHSGGC donated the endoscopes and other equipment, and Glasgow City Council shipped the equipment from Glasgow to Malawi.
Dr Stanley said: "This was my second visit. The first was a fact finding mission.
"The hospital in the north (Mzuzu) covers a third of the country. The main trouble is schistosomiasis. People die if they don't get treated. The equipment will also be used to treat cancer of the gullet, although we can't cure it, we can put endoscopic stents in to help people eat.
"At the moment people have to travel five hours south to get treatment. To be frank, many do not make the journey. Glasgow health board very kindly donated equipment that has been upgraded.
"Our main aim is to get a sustainable, local unit happening."
Malawi, with a population of 16.3 million, is among the world's least-developed countries, with low life expectancy and high infant mortality, and high HIV/AIDS infection rate.
Around 90% of the population lives on under £1.25 a day.
caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk
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