Thursday, January 01, 2009

Regina pharmacist to volunteer in Gambia

From the Regina Leader Post:
The number of pharmacists at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul, Gambia, will double when Regina’s Jennifer Dyck arrives.

“There’s currently only one pharmacist for this hospital, which is the main teaching and referral centre for the whole country,” Dyck said. “Part of the problem is that companies from North America and Europe often come and recruit people from these countries so it depletes their trained workers.”

The 28-year-old pharmacist is taking a four-month leave from her job at the Regina General Hospital in February to volunteer at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH). While there she’ll continue the work she began on the two previous trips she took to West Africa with the Christian Volunteer Movement, a non-denominational Christian organization.

For two weeks in November 2006, she and two Alberta pharmacists sorted through a mountain of donated drugs in the hospital’s storeroom.

“Sometimes tourists drop off their partially used medications, some come from physician clinics either in Europe or North America, some come from larger aid organizations and drug companies or they could be from groups that regularly provide medical aid to developing countries,” Dyck said. ...more

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