A FORMER Christ College pupil from Brecon has recently returned from Cambodia where he worked with a team of doctors to improve local healthcare.

Elgan Jones, who is now studying medicine at Newcastle University, joined the charity Transform Health Cambodia on a mission to Battambang, a city in the north west of the country on the Sangkee River.

Elgan, whose family live near Libanus, spent 10 days in Battambang in February as part of a team working alongside Cambodian doctors and nurses.

He said he found the experience “amazing” as well as “humbling” and hopes to return for a longer eight-week stint this summer.

Elgan, who is 22 and in his fourth year studying at Newcastle, said that during his visit he spent time working in the operation theatres, emergency room and surgery wards at Battambang Referral Hospital.

Elgan also helped to deliver teaching sessions to doctors and nurses at the hospital which provides free healthcare to over a million of Cambodia’s poorest residents.

He also spent a morning at the World Mate Emergency Hospital, also known as the Handa Hospital, with Dr Simon Stock – a surgeon from the UK with more than 20 years’ experience.

Dr Stock and his wife Lynette dedicate their lives to improving the health of the Khmer people who are native to Cambodia.

The Khmer people form the largest ethnic grouping in Cambodia, a country in south-east Asia that was ravaged in the late 1970s during the genocide launched by the country’s despotic ruler Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia has much changed since that dark era but it still remains one of the world’s poorest countries and has an economy that is largely dominated by agriculture.

It also has the highest crime rate in its region and a worryingly high number of murders. Talking about why he wanted to help in Cambodia, Elgan said: “I’ve done quite a lot of medical education and education in general and it is an interest of mine.

“The remit of the visit was clinical but it was educational as well for the doctors and nurses there, and for me as what I did there was very different from what I’ve done before.”

Elgan, who has just over one year left on his university course, said he is considering going into a career in general practice and that he will use the experience he gained from his time in Cambodia to help formulate his future career plans.

He added: “The Cambodian doctors and nurses were all so eager to learn and made us feel very welcome. Our week was a humbling one but also an amazing experience.

“I’ve already planned a future teaching session for the next team, who will come out in November to deliver a session on electrolyte imbalance, which is a common problem in Cambodia where diarrhoeal illnesses are one of the biggest causes for admission.

“The hospitals there are just completely different, in terms of practice, clinics, the patients you see, the diseases you see and they do just have a different way of doing things.

“I would absolutely encourage any health care professionals or medical students to go – it completely broadens your horizons and there are diseases and pathology there which you just don’t see in the UK.

“It also gives you a different perspective on the hospitals in the UK and the National Health Service, and just how lucky we are to have access to healthcare when we need it.”

Elgan joined the trip as part of his Student Selected Study Course and was supervised by his lecturer and mentor, Dr Sue Jones.

While in Cambodia, Egan also visited a rural village where he helped the team run a diabetes clinic and took patients’ blood pressures.

He had already spent six weeks learning about medical education, diabetes and patient education at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust before the trip.

Graham Jones, a senior lecturer at Teeside University and director of the charity who led the team to Battambang, said: “On behalf of the charity, I want to say a big thank you to Elgan. He was by far the youngest member of the team but proved to be a very able peer and was very mature.

“He is a credit to his university and his family should feel very proud of him. He should feel very proud of the work he did in Battambang. The whole team were incredible.

“Not only did Elgan share his clinical knowledge with our Khmer healthcare colleagues, but he gave up his own time for free and self funded his own trip, which as a medical student is very humbling. We have a wonderful NHS and perhaps sometimes we don’t realise how lucky we are. 

“These superb NHS doctors, nurses and medical students work really hard all year round either caring, or training to care for patients back home in the UK and for them to then come out to Cambodia with the charity and volunteer is just fantastic. This really is our NHS at its very best.”

To find out more about Transform Healthcare Cambodia and the opportunities available for volunteering in healthcare work in Battambang, visit the charity’s Facebook page.