Taking Paediatrics Abroad: Working with low‐ and middle‐income countries in a global pandemic

Abstract

Children and young people around the world face challenges to their health and wellbeing. In particular, in low‐ and middle‐income countries they experience a higher burden of disease, exacerbated by global inequity limiting access to quality health care. According to the inverse care law, the availability of quality health care varies inversely to the need of the population, and hardworking health‐care professionals in under‐resourced countries may face impediments to continued education or subspecialty training. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, collaborations have been developed between high‐income and low‐ and‐middle‐income countries to address global disparities in health. These collaborations face challenges of high financial costs, difficulties creating long‐term sustainable change, and with the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, border closures preventing fly‐in volunteers. In this paper, we describe the development of an innovative, paediatric‐specific model of care for training and support between high‐ and low‐income countries – Taking Paediatrics Abroad Ltd. Taking Paediatrics Abroad supports the development of mutually beneficial relationships between Australian paediatric health‐care professionals and paediatric health‐care professionals in developing countries and remote, underserved Australian Aboriginal communities. Since May 2020, there have been over 100 sessions covering a vast array of paediatric specialties. This article explores Taking Paediatrics Abroad's model of care, its implementation and challenges, and opportunities for the future.