International teamwork

“Our job is to treat people with the misfortune to have congenital heart disease wherever they live in the world,” says Mr Sethia. And true to his word, he has travelled to Palestine, Egypt, Mauritius and Brazil to help local medical teams develop the expertise to treat their patients.

Adds Mr Sethia: “I see it as a two-way benefit as we learn a lot from them and also get access to patients with diseases we don’t see in the UK. This is essential for our continuing research into congenital heart disease.”

Passionate

Mr Sethia is passionate about training overseas teams and sharing best practice. He says: “I am particularly interested in the development of local teams and helping them to become self-sufficient. Hospitals such as Royal Brompton have many years of experience in setting up these types of programmes and can make a major contribution to the wellbeing of people around the world.”

Palestine

For the last thirteen years, Mr Sethia has been visiting Palestine on a regular basis to develop a surgical programme and set up a congenital heart service unit for children. Together with colleagues from Italy, Belgium, New Zealand and the United States, he works with the Palestine Children’s Relief  Fund to operate on children with heart disease in his spare time.

He says: “We treat around 200-250 children a year and over the years have helped develop skills locally. There is now a team of trained nurses, anaesthetists and cardiologists in Palestine who are fully self-supporting.”

Algeria

A group of colleagues from the Royal Brompton Hospital is engaged in a project to train Algerian colleagues at Bous-Ismail children's hospital near Algiers in delivering modern standards of paediatric cardiology and surgery. It involves regular monthly visits to Algeria by a multidisciplinary team at the request of the Algerian Ministry of Health. Some Algerian children with more complicated cardiac problems have also been treated at Royal Brompton Hospital in the past year. The project is anticipated to last for at least five years.

Chain of Hope

Dr Sethia also volunteers with the Chain of Hope – a London-based charity dedicated to helping children suffering from life threatening diseases overseas. He travelled to Brazil in 2006 and then again in 2007 with ten physicians and nurses to help develop local expertise to treat patients with complex congenital heart diseases. 

Says Mr Sethia: “In the area there are 800 children a year needing treatment and only 70 receiving it. It is essential that local teams are established so that children don’t have to travel overseas for surgery.”

International colleagues

Working with international colleagues as well as those from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where he worked before joining Royal Brompton, gives Mr Sethia a fresh perspective.

He explains: “The benefit of working with international teams is that we get a feel for what people in other institutions do. This helps to broaden our own experience and learn new ways of doing things.

“Working overseas also helps to maintain the reputation of  Royal Brompton as a centre of excellence and education. This means that the brightest and keenest people will continue to come and train with us.”

Conferences

Dr Sethia speaks at international conferences on congenital heart disease and in the last few months has given lectures in Spain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Switzerland and India. He has also had several papers published in key international publications such as the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery.