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International Development Minister, Baroness Northover visited Manchester recently to praise medics’ work in combatting Ebola and helping the world prepare for future crises.

At the University of Manchester she met with Professor Tony Redmond OBE who established UK-Med and has led the deployments of medical teams to disasters around the world including Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and most recently to West Africa to combat Ebola.

She thanked staff for the work they have done responding to emergencies is some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and heard from the University’s Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute about what lessons can be learnt from the current Ebola outbreak to help prepare for similar future disaster.

Baroness Northover said:

The UK leads the world in responding to humanitarian crises, providing both assistance on the ground and devising strategies to ensure the world has an even better response to the next disaster.

Manchester should be proud that it is home to organisations that have saved and improved lives around the world.

DFID funds UK-Med to operate the UK International Emergency Trauma Register (UKIETR). This register is dedicated to providing pre-trained NHS clinicians for deployment in the aftermath of sudden onset disasters. UK-Med has been working with the Department for International Development, Department of Health and International NGOs to recruit NHS volunteers to work in one of six DFID-funded Ebola Treatment Centres in Sierra Leone.

Baroness Northover also paid a visit to Trinity CE High School which involved in DFID’s Connecting Classrooms initiative. This global education programme for schools helps international development work to be incorporated into the school curriculum. Trinity CE High School is linked through the scheme with a school in Namibia.

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