Honduras is a country of six and a half million people in the middle of Central America. There is an enormous amount of poverty, malnutrition, substandard housing, as well as lack of access to health care. Also there is a lack of adequately trained and skilled specialists.
In 2001, Hospital Escuela, the only medical school in Honduras, started their own Otolaryngology training program. In January of 2005 they graduated their first class. The effort by the government to train specialists in Honduras rather than outside the country will help place specialists in those underserved rural areas, which lack much needed specialty care.
Global ENT, through its association with the ENT department at the Hospital Escuela and the Central Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa, has been providing service to the Honduran people. At the medical school a coordinated project to start a temporal bone lab was accomplished in 2003. Plans are underway to bring visiting surgeons who will lecture and perform surgeries, as well as resident and medical students from the USA.
Global ENT Outreach has been able to achieve its goals through coordinated efforts with its partners. Patients are screened and examined by the ENT specialists in Honduras and scheduled for surgery. Upon our arrival we concentrate on improving surgical skills and providing the care needed for the patients. Through such a program we are able to maximize our efforts in delivering care and also in educating the local ENT surgeons.