Canadian Medical Team in Taiz [Archives:2000/44/Reportage]

Yemen Times Staff
Taiz
A Canadian Medical team of highly qualified doctors, headed by Dr. Martin Robinson, arrived in Taiz last week. In the team, there was also an artist who gave lectures in Taiz University. A medical conference was held in Al-Saeed Cultural Foundation  last Wednesday in Taiz. In the conference, Mr. Faisal Saeed Fare delivered a speech in which he welcomed the Canadian team and Mr. Yasin Al-Qubati, Coordinator of the visiting team activities. He explained that the personal relationship between him and Dr. Robinson has brought a welcome dividend in inviting many Canadian doctors to Yemen every year to offer help to Yemeni patients and doctors. He thanked Al-Saeed Foundation for hosting the Canadian team and covering most of its expenses. He also thanked the managers of hospitals where operations were made, the Health Minister, Taiz Governor, the Canadian Occidental Company for paying for the tickets and hosting the team in  Sanaa and Sayoon. Dr. Robinson also delivered a speech in which he indicated that visits would continue and there were preparations for establishing  the Yemeni-Canadian Association that would be headed by Dr. Ahmad Hael Saeed. 
During the last week the team made operations on many difficult cases in hospitals. The team also gave lectures on hospital management, saving cardiac patients who got sudden coma, neurotic diseases, female surgery and obstetrics.
Dr. Marten Robinson said, The aim of our visit to Yemen is to address the issues of the high infant and maternal mortality which is one of the highest rates in the world. With this in mind, we are looking  at the facilities and infrastructure in which we can develop a program to monitor the welfare of mothers and babies and try our best to reduce the death rate. Besides, we are doing many other things that could help Yemen improve a lot in the medical fields. We are particularly interested here in establishing relations with Yemeni positions and universities which will help Yemenis improve health education, and training, and we are very much interested here in the health of mothers and babies. 
This visit has been really successful and we have been very busy and have seen over two hundred difficult  and challenging cases, in other fields of medicine as well, for example,  Neurology, Hematology, heart problems  and stroke. One member of our team offered a course in hospital management and another member ran a course on advanced heart support, both of which were well attended.
Regarding our relationship with Yemen, I can say that it is very good and, in future, it is going to continue to be better.
In fact, we got a lot of support from the Ministry of Health, from Dr. Abdul-Wali Nasher, Al-Saeed Foundation, and all people concerned. Really, we enjoyed a lot coming here and I do have high respect for Yemeni people for being friendly and hospitable.
Dr. Yasin Al-Qubati, Medical Representative of German Leprosy Relieve Association in Yemen, said, The visits of the Canadian doctors and surgeons in many medical fields to Yemen started in 1995. The aim of these visits is to offer advanced  technological experiences and practically train the Yemeni doctors in the operation theaters and, theoretically in the lecture halls. He said that the visit was the first of its kind to Taiz and was hosted by Hael Saeed Anam Foundation for Culture and Sciences. He added that he arranged for this visit by contacting the Canadian doctors who gave lectures about hospitals management, helping cardiac patients, dealing with neurotic diseases and mother and child care. The team spent a whole day in giving lectures in many medical fields. I participated in a lecture about onchocercozis in Yemen. 
Dr. Tawfeeq Al-Qershi, Deputy-Manager of the Health Office, Taiz, said, The Yemeni-Canadian Medical Conference consolidates the friendship between Yemen and Canada. The aim of the conference is to systematically improve the medical performance in Yemen by benefiting from the medical experiences of Canadian doctors in cardiac, neurotic, mother and child diseases as well as health management and researches. He also said that the conference activities started on 22\10\2000 with team work. The first team examined and treated the cardiac patients in Al-Jomhoori Hospital while the second team examined and did operations on gynecological cases, prepared for earlier in Al-Jomhoori Hospital, Al-Saeed Hospital and Al-Hikma Hospital.
The third team examined and treated childrens diseases in the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital whereas the fourth team gave many lectures on hospital management. The three-day lectures, given by Dr. Albert Driedger, included themes of administration, statistics, planning, making use of resources, and medical economy. Managers and specialists in the field of public and private hospital management in Taiz attended those lectures. These events came as the fruitful results of the efforts made by Al-Saeed Foundation for Sciences and Culture, Canadian Occidental Company, the interaction of the Yemeni doctors specially Dr. Yasin Al-Qubati, coordinator of the  conference and the Yemeni Ambassador in Canada \ Mustafa Aman.
On our part, we felt good for the good relationships among the Yemeni and Canadian doctors that resulted from these visits and that undoubtedly will contribute to the improvement of the medical service in Yemen. We   hope such visits get repeated and that the Yemeni-Canadian Medical Association gets established as it contributes to the development of relationships between the two countries. We would like to thank Al-Saeed Cultural Foundation and all the doctors who participated in the conference.


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