Charity to build 20 paediatric ops rooms

A global health charity based in Scotland that builds paediatric operating rooms is to create 20 new facilities after striking a partnership with Smile Train.

Edinburgh-based Kids Operating Room (Kidsor) has already installed 25 such facilities in 11 countries across Africa and South America and is later this year due to open the first at a refugee camp in Kenya.

They will now work with the world’s biggest cleft lip charity to supply an initial 20 sites across Africa by 2021, caring for more than 12,000 children.

The first operating room will be based at the Teaching Hospital in Treichville, Ivory Coast, with equipment currently being loaded up from the Kidsor warehouse in Dundee.

Kidsor was founded by Nicola and Garreth Wood in 2018 with the aim of installing 120 paediatric operating rooms across the continent by 2030.

Chief executive David Cunningham said: “Our strategies for the development of care in Africa are closely aligned and by collaborating we can maximise our combined impact, minimise administrative costs and prevent duplication of effort.

“We are delighted… that more children have access to the care they need in a sustainable, locally delivered way.”

New York-based Smile Train helps give training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children around the world.