The Amalthea Trust, a new charity established to train medical engineers in Africa, has donated a new Rigel 266 safety tester to the Mbarara Hospital in Northern Uganda. The Ugandan hospital has been assisted over the years by professional staff from the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Peter Smithson, Head of Medical Engineering at the BRI, and his colleagues have been assisting the fledgling medical engineering department in Mbarara, but require funds and equipment to carry on their work.  The Amalthea Trust was only too happy to help.

It is hoped over the next few years to build, in association with the University of Science and Technology in Mbarara, a centre of excellence to train medical engineers.

The Amalthea Trust was established by auctioneers, Hilditch Medical Ltd, when it became apparent that, although large quantities of equipment were being shipped to developing countries, often they did not have the resources or expertise to maintain them. This has resulted in many pieces of medical equipment languishing unused.

In a separate project, The Amalthea Trust is donating power leads to enable donated equipment to be used, and sponsoring a major project to develop the medical engineering department at the Mulago Hospital, Kampala.

Mike Hilditch, Chairman of The Amalthea Trust would be delighted to hear from any medical engineers that would like to assist in any of their projects.

Contact Mike on 01666 822577 or via the website http://www.amaltheatrust.org.uk