THET Celebrates its 30th year at the House of Lords!

The event was as much a celebration of the work THET has done over the last 30 years as it was a re-commitment to the vision that was put in place by our founder Professor Sir Eldryd Parry.

We were honoured to have the Lord Speaker, Norman Fowler as our host and our first Patron Lord Crisp, who has been a friend and supporter of our work for many years. He commended the important role that THET plays as a leader in global health partnerships, how we continue to respond to help strengthen health services globally, but most importantly the continued reciprocal, and shared nature of our work. Eldryd spoke of THET’s founding principle: a need to collaborate with partners overseas listening to their needs and ensuring a more sustainable outcome for health workers, patients and partners.

It was also inspiring to hear from Dr Isioma Okolo, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at NHS Lothian. She spoke passionately and fondly of her experience volunteering in Uganda with the RCOG Health Partnership as part of the Resilience in Obstetrics Skills (ROS) project speaking of her time at Kitovu hospital and the inspirational health workers that she had the privilege of working alongside and learning from.

“I was impressed by innovative ideas and practices such as: savvy recycling of clinical waste in Kitovu hospital, task shifting in Masaka referral hospital, where midwives are being trained and supported in performing ventouse vaginal deliveries. And in most hospitals, an active involvement by attendants or relatives on the ward in administering patient care and facilitating rehabilitation. I believe we have much to learn from these examples and could apply strategies such as task shifting to support the increasing demands on NHS perinatal mental health services”.

In the 30 years since THET was founded, we have seen time and time again the benefits that working in partnership brings to not just our organisation but to health workers, health systems and most importantly patients. The model of partnership is a thread that runs through our work, and has been key to our impact and sustainability over the years.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff former and present, trustees, volunteers and partners who work tirelessly in to ensure that THET continued to work towards its vision of a world where everyone has access to quality healthcare.