The setting is the Mengo hospital for plastic and reconstructive surgery in Kampala, the meeting the Ugandan Society of Anaesthesia's annual refresher course. I am working with Andrew Hodges, who has established the charity Interface Uganda and moved to Kampala with his wife and family to set up a plastic surgical training programme. Sarah Hodges is an anaesthetist and is coordinating the refresher meeting. There are a handful of speakers from Britain for the two courses, held back to back, which are attended by nearly all of the anaesthetists and anaesthetic officers in the country. That's a total of 280 of the 330 anaesthetic officers, 11 consultant anaesthetists, and three trainee anaesthetists currently in Uganda. The population of Uganda is 24 million. The Royal College of Anaesthetists has 13 000 anaesthetists on its books in the United Kingdom.

We …