When we all first realised just how serious the COVID-19 pandemic was, Primary Care International received urgent requests for help from front-line primary healthcare workers in very resource-poor settings around the world. With your support we rapidly mobilised to respond to these requests – and quickly shared, for free, online COVID-19 e-learning content in English, French and Arabic. Over 3000 healthcare workers, from almost 80 countries round the world, have used this guidance so far.
"Despite limited equipment or facilities in the health care setting, I now know how to effectively manage COVID-19 with proper awareness."
Over a year on, we have learnt a lot about Covid but unfortunately the disease is gaining ground faster than ever - especially in low and middle income countries, and so we are asking for your help again.
Guidance and treatment options have evolved - and we are getting new requests from healthcare workers for updated guidance - to allow them to make the best possible choices for their patients and their populations.
These are often places where testing for Covid is still not widely available, vaccines are in very limited supply, and care for those with serious Covid disease is hampered by lack of space, staff PPE and essential equipment.
PCI is a small social enterprise and we need your support to invest in the necessary updates to the content. This will include information on: vaccines; medications that work; variants; long Covid; and techniques for management at home, for those without access to professional care. The content – consistent with PCI style – will cut through the noise to provide concise, pragmatic guidance to front-line health workers. And because the guidance is written by primary healthcare workers for primary healthcare workers – and responds to questions received from colleagues around the world – it gets straight to the answers doctors and nurses need right now. It draws on up-to-date guidance from key sources including the WHO, UNHCR and PCI’s own sister organisation Red Whale (a leading provider of medical education in the UK).
We have all seen the devastating headlines from countries like India and Myanmar. And only a few weeks ago we heard from the World Health Organisation that “Africa has just marked the continent’s most dire pandemic week ever. But the worst is yet to come as the fast-moving third wave continues to gain speed and new ground."
We are hoping that you will consider contributing - either for the first time or again - towards this work. This may be £15, it may be £150 - but every single donation will mean additional frontline healthworkers in resource-poor settings can better support their patients and communities at this time.
Click here to find out more how the current guidance supported Dr Edilu Robert, a clinician in Uganda: "It was really important and useful to have training targeted specifically at primary care workers like us in resource-limited settings. I definitely found the mental health section one of the most important and necessary. As primary care practitioners we have faced huge challenges around both morale and stigma."
You can also visit our COVID-19 webpage for more on the implications of the pandemic for primary healthcare and for patients with underlying health conditions in low-resource settings.
From everyone at PCI, our heartfelt thanks to you for contributing to our work at this critical time.