STAFF at Dolgellau Hospital welcomed visitors from Quthing in Lesotho to share experiences of the challenge of promoting good health and wellbeing in rural areas.
The Betsi-Quthing Health Partnership was established in 2008 linking the health board in north Wales with the Quthing district in Lesotho, southern Africa.
The current strands of work with colleagues in Lesotho include maternity care, mental health, clinical skills refreshers for rural health centre nurses and healthcare leadership and management for clinical and non-clinical staff.
Aaron Pritchard and Dr Sue Elliston of the Betsi-Quthing Partnership accompanied the visitors from Quthing, environmental health inspector Relebohile Koenene and district public health nurse Sister Malefaso Mosese during their visit.
Mr Pritchard said: ”Our visit to Dolgellau Hospital was an exciting opportunity to share the community-centred and preventatively-focused model of public health work in action at Dolgellau.
“Our Basotho visitors thoroughly enjoyed meeting the team at Dolgellau, learning about the work being undertaken to reduce cardiovascular disease risk and diabetes and to promote overall health and well-being whilst also sharing their own experiences and innovations, delivering healthcare in a resource-limited setting.”
Patient staff were delighted to welcome Relebohile and Malefaso and enjoyed a Welsh tea with their guests before presenting them with gifts to remind them of their visit to Dolgellau.