BFIRST is a UK registered charity which trains surgeons and their teams working in the most resource poor countries in the world to enable them to undertake reconstructive Plastic Surgery independently. Thus releasing children and adults from the state of poverty and destitution associated with physical disability, injury and disease, amenable to surgical treatment.
What We Do
BFIRST transfers knowledge to surgeons and their teams, in order that they can effectively manage their locally occurring common surgical problems, across the world.
How Do We Do It?
We train local surgeons and their staff to an independent level in reconstructive plastic surgery, enabling them to treat their patients appropriately, offering their communities an equitable and sustainable service.
We offer local surgeons Fellowships in their chosen speciality, so that they gain valuable knowledge how to manage relevant surgical problems, gain expertise in specific surgical reconstructive methods, how to build their teams and develop their service.
We also train the local nurses and therapists. Without them, patient care is incomplete.
We provide them with the necessary instruments and knowledge to grow, and become independent through a tailor-made educational programme delivered by experts.
What Is An Educational Programme?
The mainstay of our educational programme is hands-on, face-to-face tutoring in the local environment by specialists; treating the most common local reconstructive problems and using local resources. This is augmented by the local surgeons attending locally delivered or international courses, as well as short- and long-term Fellowships at the Ganga Hospital under Professor Sabapathy in Coimbatore, India, at the Eda Hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan under Professor Jeng and specialist UK units.
BFIRST training is developed in conjunction with the local surgeons and their teams. By constant dialogue and feedback and being flexible, it is adaptable and responsible.
BFIRST recognises that optimal learning has to be individually tailored to the available resources, including the specific unit’s infrastructure and the most pressing local reconstructive needs, as well as their existing expertise.
The solution for training will therefore not be the same in every country.