A team of medical practitioners attached to the Canadian Reconstructive Surgery Foundation (CRSF) will be holding a clinic focusing on burn care at the Georgetown hospital.

According to a CRSF press release the volunteer team comprises reconstructive plastic surgeons and anaesthesiologist from the Scarborough Hospital. The team will be headed by Dr Tim Sproule and will include Dr Narayanan Nandagopal, Dr Stanley Tam, Dr Aroon Yusuf and Annie Tam.

Clinic will be held on February 1 and the team will spend the remainder of the week teaching and performing surgeries. The team will also be assisting in cases where persons suffer from cleft lip and palate and hand injuries. The Foundation is providing equipment, drugs, suture materials and dressings as needed and will continue to do so on an ongoing basis.

The release said Dr Sproule is no stranger to Guyana as he had designed and aided the construction of the hospital’s Burn Unit and has helped dozens of victims of severe burn injuries. Recently the Foundation donated a hydrotherapy system, anaesthesia machines and monitoring equipment, operating lights and other equipment valued thousands of dollars, to the Unit. Among its goals is to provide long-term assistance to reconstructive patients and help in the education of specialist physicians and nurses in Guyana and other developing countries.

According to the release the Foundation is a charity that works to improve the lives of needy persons in developing countries by performing reconstructive surgeries, educating local caregivers and providing specialty equipment as necessary. It was formed in 2005 with Dr Sproule as its founding medical director.

The release said Dr Sproule was inspired to provide a “Made in Canada” venue for continued work he has performed for years with the American charity Interplast which has seen him providing care for persons in diverse places such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ecuador and Peru.