In Guatemala, doctors at a remote public health center receive a shipment of medical aid that includes 20 beds and mattresses, 20 overbed tables, an exam table, a food-delivery cart, and two refrigerators to store vaccines, as well as other furnishings and many boxes of critically needed supplies. These items might have wound up in a US landfill site, were it not for a Pittsburgh-based organization founded in 1989 by three friends and colleagues who were concerned about health care needs in developing countries.

Global Links is a not-for-profit organization that recovers unused medical supplies, surplus equipment and furnishings from U.S. hospitals and ships them to hospitals and clinics that serve the poorest members of society in less developed countries. Since 1989, it has sent medical materials worth more than $133 million to more than 70 countries. Working closely with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Global Links has ongoing relationships with institutions in Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, and Nicaragua.

Given that an average patient generates 25 pounds of waste daily, U.S. hospitals discard or incinerate an estimated 2,000 tons of unused surgical supplies worth over $200 million annually. Meanwhile, says Global Links’ co-founder Kathleen Hower, people in developing countries "are quite literally dying for the lack of what we throw away.”

High costs and lack of foreign exchange in most developing countries mean hospitals cannot replace old beds, rusting exam tables, broken gurneys, or purchase enough necessary supplies such as sutures and gauze for surgery. A shipment sent to Jamaica in February, for instance, included 20 beds and mattresses, listed as one of their greatest needs as beds had not been replaced in more than 50 years. In one hospital in Nicaragua, surgical instruments have been in use since the 1970s. A hospital in Honduras now has delivery tables where women can deliver their babies, and new beds and mattresses ease overcrowded maternity wards.

Hower stresses the importance of sending only items and materials that hospitals will be able to use, which includes considering each hospital’s individual needs or specific requests. "Sending the wrong thing is worse than sending nothing." Each medical facility that receives aid is visited by a Global Links officer and in-country public health officials, who develop a detailed needs list with hospital staff. Back in the US, an actual packing list is developed, based on the needs and current and expected inventory.

Since 1990, Global Links also has shipped more than one million packets of surgical sutures worth nearly $4.3 million to hospitals in Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa, as well as ensuring that member hospitals serving the poor receive an annual allotment of the specific types of suture they request. Operating room nurses and inventory personnel from hospitals throughout the U.S. collect current the surplus suture.

Global Links' eight full-time and seven part-time staff are strongly supported by local Pittsburgh volunteers. In 2007, 1541 volunteers, working as individuals and in groups, donated 6000 hours sorting materials, cleaning and repairing furnishings, and packing shipments. In addition, local medical professionals volunteered their time to help identify and prepare much of the complicated medical materials.

US hospitals who donate surplus materials receive the dual benefit of reducing their carbon footprint by better waste management and aiding communities in less developed countries, while reducing waste and pollution in their communities.

This story is based on information on the Global Links website, and on a story entitled Building Global Links for Local Health written by Emily Nichelson-Boots, a former OneWorld intern who now volunteers for Global Links. The story, dated Pittsburgh April 21, 2008, was distributed by OneWorld Net.

 


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