A SALISBURY doctor and nurse have just returned from minefield zones in Colombia, where it was their duty to assess medical standards and train staff how to deal with injuries from explosives.

Dr Gail Ng, paediatric emergency medicine consultant at Salisbury District Hospital, and her colleague Hilary Smith, a senior nurse on the Emergency Medicine department, are both members of the Halo Trust Medical Board, which monitors the charity’s work clearing minefields across the world.

As part of the trip it was the pair’s duty to train local paramedics and residents, conduct demonstrations and explosion simulations, and make sure the hospitals and medical care in Colombia are adhering to correct standards and conditions.

Salisbury Journal:

The pair visited cities including Bogota and Cali across the fortnight in October, and Dr Ng described the trip as “great fun”.

She said: “The idea of the Halo Trust is just to help give the land back to the people.

“I love doing these trips to meet the people, they just want to absorb the knowledge and help others. It also makes me realise how lucky and safe we are here with the NHS.

“It’s great to use our medical knowledge and give it to the other side, it’s amazing to see these non-medics want to learn to help their colleagues if an accident was to happen.”

Dr Ng has been taking part in the Halo Trust programme since 2006, visiting countries including Mozambique, Kosovo and Cambodia, but this was Hilary’s first time taking part.

Hilary said: “The trip was just brilliant, it was nice at the tail end of my career to just do something completely different.

"Obviously you’ve got a job to do, but it’s so interesting and fun. I have never done anything like this before.”

Dr Ng added: “One minute you’re driving along normal roads with schools and houses and then you’re in a minefield.

“These people still have to live as normal, the kids are not bothered at all - they walk along these narrow paths not fazed at all that they are surrounded by minefields.”

The pair faced several challenges during their trip, including 12 hour-days, the speed transporting patients to hospital and limited accessiblity to resources, but Dr Ng described all her trips as “rewarding”.

She added: “When I returned to Mozambique the second time a minefield had been cleared and is now a vineyard, which was fantastic to see.”

The Halo Trust is currently running a campaign called Breaking Boundaries to clear landmines around a village in Zimbabwe, in which the Government will double any donations before December 22.

For more information and to donate click here.