Iraqis in visit for latest in hi-tech cancer care

More than 400 Iraqi physicists will travel to Sheffield in the
next five years to see the latest work on radiotherapy in a project run by Sheffield Hallam University in partnership with specialists at the city’s Weston Park Hospital.

They will get the chance to gain hands-on experience using state-of-the-art machines which deliver radiation treatment.

The partnership is also training doctors and other healthcare 
staff in a number of other disciplines.

A group of two dozen Iraqi nurses have gained healthcare certificates from the university after a four-month study programme.

Moira Tomlinson, senior manager of radiation services at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said: “The project will hopefully spread our radiotherapy expertise to a country that is really trying to move its healthcare forward after a difficult time and we are proud to be asked by Sheffield Hallam to participate.”

Christine Ferris, from Sheffield Hallam, said: “Healthcare in Iraq has suffered over the last decade.

“There has been a decline in the number of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and consequently the conditions in hospitals have become extremely poor. In the new Iraq, theMinistry of Health’s focus is on developing capacity, capability and infra-structure as well as seeking to build relations between private and public sectors.

“Consequently they have looked to the UK to help support the education and training of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and to rebuild the health system so that it mirrors the multi-professional model of many western countries.”

The project is being paid for by the Iraqi government and all money generated by the scheme is being put back into patient care in Sheffield.