To bridge the gap for millions of African children lacking access to safe surgery and anesthesia care, the world’s largest cleft organization, Smile Train has officially launched the Paediatric Anaesthesia Training in Africa (PATA) program in partnership with The ELMA Foundation and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The PATA Program will be implemented at three African institutions, namely the University of Zambia, National Hospital, Abuja in Nigeria and Makerere University, Kampala in Uganda. The training program, which has been endorsed by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), seeks to increase access to safe surgery and anaesthesia care through intensive, year-long fellowships in Paediatric anaesthesia. Through collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the program will also enable the development of a Paediatric anaesthesia policy.