Hello Neil,
Thanks for sharing this very tragic story, especially the personal human impact and consequence for Calum and all the other victims, some of whom died, and their families and friends. I recall the News report on Cable TV at the time was saturated by the report, and rightly so, but what has happened since to sustain the awareness creation, I want to ask?
And as you wrote in your comment, 'The UK Foreign Office says they are addressing this but they do not even mention methanol poisoning on the Laos health section of their own website ----'
I think that on individual basis we should all escalate the information about harms of methanol across all our other platforms.
As for HIFA is there a way it can re-share information like this periodically on its website? I dont know, is it technologically possible? I am open to suggestions how this can be done, because the public needs, in all countries, reminders to sustain awareness campaigns.
Joseph Ana.
Prof Joseph Ana
Lead Senior Fellow/ medicalconsultant.
Center for Clinical Governance Research &
Patient Safety (ACCGR&PS) @ HRI GLOBAL
P: +234 (0) 8063600642
E: info@hri-global.org
8 Amaku Street, State Housing, Calabar,Nigeria.
www.hri-global.org
HIFA profile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Senior Fellow/Medical Consultant at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). He is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Technical Advisory Group on Integrated Care in primary, emergency, operative, and critical care (TAG-IC2). As the Cross River State Commissioner for Health, he led the introduction of the Homegrown Quality Tool, the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, in Nigeria (2004-2008). For sustainability, he established the Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health in the Cross River State Ministry of Health, Nigeria. His main interest is in whole health sector and system strengthening in Lower, Low and Middle Income Countries (LLMICs). He has written six books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance programme, suitable for LLMICs, including the TOOLS for Implementation. He served as Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association’s Standing Committee on Clinical Governance (2012-2022), and he won the Nigeria Medical Association’s Award of Excellence on three consecutive occasions for the innovation. He served as Chairman, Quality & Performance, of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act 2014. He is member, National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee of the Federal Ministry of Health. He is the pioneer Secretary General/Trustee-Director of the NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group and the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers. (http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0 http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group). jneana AT yahoo.co.uk