Pharmaceutical Field - Philips donates monitors to children’s health charity

Philips donates monitors to children’s health charity

Philips Healthcare UK has donated two Intellivue MP5 monitors and associated kit to the surgical charity Medical Missions for Children (MMFC).

The monitors will be used in 15–20 missions per year around the world, assisting the surgical repair of children with burn images, cleft lips and palates, malformed ears and head or neck tumours.

The equipment package made its first mission to Quito, Ecuador, where over 75 operations were completed.

Together with the monitors, Philips supplied various add-ons including Mainstream and Sidestream technology.

“Our volunteer surgical teams travel to regions with some of the least developed healthcare systems in the world and we have to be able to rely on the equipment we carry with us, said Liz Desmarais, Executive Director of MMFC.

“The MP5 monitors are lightweight, robust and simple to set up – exactly what we need on the road. These monitors will be our constant companion over the next few years.”

The monitors will next be taken to China and then the Philippines, and will support thousands of patients over the next few years.

Cathal Boyle (far left in photo), Philips’ clinical applications specialist in patient monitoring, assisted with the use of the monitors in Quito. His skills as a trauma nurse enabled the MMFC surgical team (pictured) to run an additional operating table.

Dr John Pook, a UK consultant anaesthetist and volunteer anaesthetist with Medical Missions for Children, contacted Philips to request assistance. He commented:

“I'd like to thank Philips sincerely for their generosity, and for sending Cathal Boyle to join our Quito team,” Dr Pook commented. “He was exceptional – not just in commissioning and teaching us how to use the monitors, but in using his enormous clinical experience became an essential member of the operating team.”