Mauritian medics and nurses are continuing to benefit from the kindness and skills of staff from Bradford hospitals.

Deputy Director of Medicine, Sulleman Moreea, and nurse Nemia Domondo recently returned to the island to carry out a third endoscopy workshop at the island’s main  hospital.

Dr Moreea provided one-to-one endoscopy training to 17 endoscopists while Nemia helped train 15 nurses to assist in the advanced endoscopic procedures.

Dr Moreea said: “This visit was one more step in the continuing relationship between Bradford Teaching Hospitals and our colleagues in Mauritius. The emphasis this year was threefold: firstly, to teach the basic skills of endoscopy to doctors from the five hospitals around the island. Each hospital’s team of doctors and nurses had a whole day of one-to-one training. Instead of the teams having to travel to the UK, we took the training to them with a view to standardise endoscopy throughout the island along the same lines as in the UK.

“Secondly, we helped the leading Gastroenterologist Dr Farouk Bholah with his difficult cases. Just as a reminder, prior to the summer of 2010, there were no ERCP1 performed in the public hospitals in Mauritius. Dr Bholah came over to Bradford for training and on his return to the island he performed 19 ERCP cases, preventing these often elderly patients from having major open surgery. During our stay we did an additional 11 difficult ERCP cases.

“Thirdly, I was invited by the Mauritian Ministry of Health and Quality of Life to help in the development of future endoscopy units on the island with a long term view of making Mauritius a centre of excellence in the Indian Ocean.

“It was a privilege and very satisfying indeed to be able to pass on our skills to a country which is really seizing the benefits which endoscopy can bring to its patients.”

During their seven day visit, Dr Moreea also met with the Mauritian Prime Minister who is keen for the Bradford-Mauritius link to continue.

Dr Moreea, along with fellow consultant Dr Conrad Beckett, have been bringing the revolutionary and new techniques of advanced endoscopy (colonoscopy and ERCP) to the patients of Mauritius by training island staff in this hi-tech surgery since 2008.

During the summer, a three-person team of experienced gastroenterologist Dr Farouk Bholah and nurses, Lakshmi Devi Conhoye and Ally Sobratty – visited Bradford, York and Leeds to train in a programme organised by Dr Moreea.

Dr Moreea, deputy director of medicine and a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist, said: “The team worked extremely hard during their time in Bradford and were able to perfect their skills in colonoscopy but more importantly ERCP.

”This technique allows access to the biliary system with an endoscope inserted through the mouth. It is a routine procedure in the UK to treat blockages of the bile duct, like gallstones, but until the team came to Bradford, it was not available in Mauritius.

“I was delighted to be able to see the way the team and Dr Bholah’s skills have grown in the past couple of months.”

The link between the tiny island, which lies off the south eastern coast of Africa and has a population of 1.2million, came about when Mauritian-born Dr Moreea met the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr The Honourable Navinchandra Ramgoolam, on a visit to Bradford in 2007. The PM had come to meet former colleagues from his time as a doctor at the Yorkshire Clinic, in Cottingley, in the 1980s, and he asked Dr Moreea about how relations could be enhanced between Mauritius and Bradford.

As a result, Dr Moreea organised a gastroenterology workshop to train his fellow countrymen in the digestive system and its disorders. The one-off event became an ongoing series of workshops and the relationship goes from strength to strength today.

Dr Moreea’s input into the island’s services also resulted in Mauritian Ministry of Health announcing the funding and training of Dr Bhloah in ERCP.

Dr Bholah trained in London and spent over a decade working in hospitals in southern England before specialising in gastroenterology at Southampton General. He returned home to Mauritius to work in the SSRN hospital which has around 300 beds in 1987.