Global Health

How do privilege and prejudice shape access to emergency care? In this reflection on equality and global health, updated in 2023, Stevan Bruijns challenges his own assumptions and asks readers to consider whose experiences, research and opportunities are represented in medicine.

Day three of badEMfest 2018 connects prehospital and retrieval learning with the patient’s experience of care. Highlights include wilderness rescue, research priorities, end-of-life discussions, handwashing and chronic pain, alongside reflections on teamwork and what clinicians can learn from becoming patients themselves.

The second day of badEMfest 2018 combines practical emergency care with questions about leadership and humanity. This report covers paediatric problems, imaging in pregnancy, trauma resuscitation and South African emergency services, alongside feedback, staff support, sleep and kindness in clinical encounters.

The opening day of badEMfest 2018 puts equality, advocacy and African-led solutions at the centre of emergency care. This report brings together discussions of traditional medicine, respectful transgender care, point-of-care ultrasound and resuscitation, asking how local context and unequal access shape what clinicians can achieve.

Chris Wearmouth reflects on working in rural South Africa after foundation training. His 2018 account explores resource constraints, responsibility, supervision and the limits of competence, alongside the value of reciprocal teaching and sustainable improvement. It offers a candid perspective on both the opportunities and the personal costs of working abroad.

Stevan Bruijns reflects on working across South African and UK emergency care, challenging assumptions about who teaches and who learns. His account considers the risks of overseas placements, reciprocal learning and practical ways to support colleagues in lower-resource settings, including collaborations that do not require travel.