Oxford Global Surgery at PAPSA 2025: Advancing paediatric surgical education across Africa

NDS's Global Surgery Group was invited to the Pan African Paediatric Surgery Association (PAPSA) meeting to provide preconference courses on Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), a research seminar, a trauma course with the Global Initiative of Children’s Surgery (GICS), and a neonatal skills course with the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (BAPS).

Led by myself, the team included Dr Gerlin Naidoo (DPhil student), Dr Dennis Mazingi (DPhil student), Dr Mama Ntiriwa (DPhil student), Dr Soham Bandyopadhay (senior researcher), and Dr Mohammed Salim (Tanzania-Oxford collaborator). The team also participated in the biennial PAPSA conference, which represents paediatric surgeons from all parts of Africa.

Hugh Greenwood Neonatal skills course (full-day)

Dr Haitham Dagash (BAPS) and I led the course with faculty from the Oxford team, along with Dr Niyi Ade-Ajayi from King’s College Hospitals and senior consultant from South Africa, Sudan, Ghana and Tanzania. We fondly remembered Mr Hugh Greenwood for his generous donation and support for Global Surgery for many years, especially education for countries with less resources. The course was attended by 35 candidates, ranging from medical students to senior consultants, with the latter participating in a trainer capacity. Four simulation models made from chicken tissue were prepared the day before to simulate neonatal bowel anastomosis, duodenal atresia repair, gastrostomy and trachea-oesophageal fistula + oesophageal atresia. The last hour was a workshop on management of gastroschisis.

The hands-on workshop led by Dr Mohamed Salim on the bedside sutureless technique for pre-hospital and in-hospital care of gastroschisis, without the need for theatre, anaesthesia, or total parenteral nutrition, was the most popular.

The candidates showed a lot of enthusiasm and drive to learn more from this course. Medical students and early year trainees concentrated on tissue and instrument handling, while middle grade and senior trainees concentrated on simulated birth defect models. The feedback for course content, faculty teaching methods and model selection was over 95% positive. Requests were made for a two-day course, online videos, and the inclusion of urology simulation models. Overall, it was a very positive outcome with candidate satisfaction and the training of five more future faculty from Sub-Saharan Africa. The gastroschisis workshop was the most popular.

POCUS Course (half-day)

The half-day course led by Dr Gerlin Naidoo and Dr Mohamed Salim was attended by 28 candidates, including trainees and consultants from paediatric surgery and the accident & emergency department. Medical students acted as patient actors, and there were live demonstrations on using ultrasound probes and understanding how to read the image on the screen. This basic course has become very popular, with a demand to extend it to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and received positive feedback from over 93% of participants. On this occasion, we only had two machines for demonstration and participation, and a request has been made for more stations to give all participants an equal opportunity for hands-on work. It has also been suggested to extend the course to a full-day.

Research Seminar (half-day)

The seminar, led by Dr Dennis Mazingi and Dr Gerlin Naidoo with support from Dr Mama Ntiriwa and Dr Soham Bandyopadhay, covered several topics. These included how to get involved in research, writing case reports and case series, ethics, audits, quality improvement projects leading to research, data management, and systematic reviews. There were 32 candidates with a mix of early-stage and advanced research skills. The case report, audit, and quality improvement sessions significantly boosted the confidence of early researchers, demonstrating that even with a busy clinical workload, trainees can still engage in research. Advanced researchers, however, wished for a separate advanced research seminar. For the next preconference invite, if time permits, we could separate the early and advance researchers into a half-day or full-day course for each ability. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 97% expressing great enthusiasm, particularly for the quality improvement projects.

Trauma Course (full-day)

This was the first trauma course developed by colleagues from low-middle income countries, specifically for children, as part of the Primary Trauma Care course. The course was led by Dr Abdelbasit from Sudan, under the GICS initiative, with participation from Dr Dennis Mazingi and myself. Faculty members were from Nigeria, South Africa, and Côte d'Ivoire. The course combined lectures and hands-on simulations for trauma and was well received, with feedback suggesting a need for more simulations and less lecture content. There was a total of 19 participants.

PAPSA Conference

The two-day conference, themed on capacity building and sustainability for paediatric surgery in Africa, featured invited lectures, panel discussions, free papers, specific trainee sessions, and nurse-led sessions. Over 100 participants from across Africa attended. I spoke about the history of PAPSA, while Dr Dennis Mazingi and Dr Mama Ntiriwa were also active participants.