THE ROTARY DOCTOR BANK OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.    Questions and Answers.

Who are we?

A Rotary Charity started in 1994 and celebrating its 20^th Anniversary in 2014.

What do we do?

Maintain a bank of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, who wish to volunteer their services abroad.

We also place them in hospitals which have been vetted and used previously.

RDB pay the airfares and  living expenses.

Where do the volunteers go?

We have contacts with rural hospitals in Africa. ( eg. Uganda and Zambia.) We use a limited number of hospitals rather than spreading ourselves too thinly. They are mostly run by religious groups with some government funding. Typically there are 3-4 doctors per hospital of 150-300 beds. One surgeon to do all the surgery and one anaesthetist.

Who are the volunteers?

A mixture of surgeons,  GPs, nurses, midwives  and occasionally dentists. They are not necessarily Rotarians. GPs would be expected to cover obstetrics. We send midwives to train existing staff. Sometimes we fund individuals and sometimes a team eg. surgeon, anaesthetist and theatre sister. Wherever possible training of local staff is paramount.

Where does our money come from?

Mostly from Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs in RIBI and from individual Rotarians.  Some funding comes from other sources such as talks to other groups, Probus, Womens Institutes, U3A and Church Groups.

How long are the volunteers abroad?

Until recent years we relied mostly on retired medical staff who would volunteer for 4-8 weeks at a time. However now accreditation is more vigorous and we have only a short window following retirement. We have to rely more on staff still employed and they can only afford 1-2 weeks at a time. Most Trusts allow this as paid leave. All must be covered by the  GMC or equivalent.

What do we need?

Basically we need a constant supply of money and volunteers.

What percentage of the money gets to the volunteers?

Our only overhead is  stationary as the Management Committee are all volunteers.  Almost 100% of our income is used to fund volunteers.

IF YOU WOULD MORE INFORMATION ON THE ROTARY DOCTOR BANK PLEASE CONTACT US ON

Rotary.doctorbank@gmail.com

I sometimes take Rotarians to visit the hospitals and a school and Leprosy Centre in Uganda but these trips are self- funded totally.

ARTHUR KNIGHT

Chairman, Rotary Doctor Bank.