Kuwait project | International and Private Care

In June 2010, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) entered into partnership with Kuwait Ministry of Health (MOH) to design and deliver a collaborative programme to enhance services for children and young people with cancer at NBK Hospital.

The programme aims to support local doctors and nurses to establish systems, processes, capability and capacity to ensure that children with cancer can receive safe and effective care in Kuwait. The interim goal is that children remain in their home country for more of their treatment, reducing the need to travel overseas for their care. In the longer term, children with cancer in Kuwait will have access to a world class, multi-faceted clinical service, equivalent to that provided at GOSH. 

GOSH provides NBK with a wide range of services including clinical advice, case management, diagnostic support, clinical visits and training and education for clinical professionals.  

This model of service support is delivered in various forms:

Consultancy via a ‘visiting consultant’ programme: Specialist GOSH consultants visit NBK Hospital to provide clinical support and training to doctors on the wards as well as delivering formal lectures and workshops, enhanced by individual assessments of competence and knowledge.  The continued delivery of the multi-modal education programme and increase in the number of GOSH visits per year, provides clinical leadership and a programme that mirrors the GOSH clinical model. Visits are currently provided by Haematology and Oncology specialist consultants.
Training and Education Modules: To develop multi-disciplinary team working, nursing practice and other professional group expertise, GOSH specialist staff deliver a pre-agreed education programme. This is now evolving towards advanced nursing knowledge for nurse specialists, while continuing to strengthen the leadership and management content delivered earlier in the programme. The focus is on very practical simulated learning as well as theory and includes head nurse leadership, management and development.
Ongoing advice and remote support to the NBK team is provided from London via telephone, videoconference and email, to ensure continuity to the team in Kuwait.
On-site attachments for Kuwait staff at GOSH provide the opportunity to observe how a world-class paediatric cancer hospital works in practice. Visitors are supported by a professional mentor from their field of expertise.  Knowledge and skills are enhanced through exposure to a wide range of haematology and oncology conditions, their treatment and management, and GOSH’s processes and systems. Attachments are available for all key staff groups including medical staff, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Clinical Pharmacists, Dieticians and Psycho-Social specialists.
A diagnostic confirmation service is provided by GOSH, including Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) testing for children with leukaemia at NBK Hospital.

Following the success of the Haematology and Oncology partnership with the Kuwait MOH, GOSH carried out clinical service reviews in Paediatric Neurosurgery and Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplants, and presented a service development proposal to the MOH. In addition, GOSH experts in Infection, Prevention and Control, Pharmacy and Dietetics have reviewed the associated NBK service and presented a redevelopment programme to the MOH which GOSH will support when recommendations are implemented. The requirement for additional service reviews has been identified in clinical areas such as Paediatric Immunology and Paediatric Haemophilia.