Private healthcare provider BUPA has donated £25,000 to technology charity Digital Links International to cover the costs of providing 800 refurbished computers for 30 medical institutions in Moldova.
A former state of the Soviet Union, Moldova is Europe’s poorest country and many hospitals lack access to modern IT. Digital Links International are working with the Moldovan Ministry of Health to computerise hospitals and health centres by providing low cost refurbished computers donated by UK companies.
Digital Links claims that a lack of IT affects most areas of a hospital’s operations, including diagnostics, training, record-keeping as well as isolating Moldovan doctors from the wealth of information available on the web.
A Digital Links spokesperson told E-Health Insider: “We are a charity that provides an IT disposal service to UK companies and refurbishes the PCs for reuse in the developing world. Even old PCs like the ones we sent to Moldova, with Pentium One processors, when properly restored, still work perfectly and help developing countries.
“We are able to collect them and guarantee certified data erasure and compliance with all current and upcoming legislation. BUPA have kindly agreed to help us to help the poor people in Moldova get the best from their healthcare by allowing doctors the chance to use computers as a medical resource.”
BUPA’s group purchasing director, Mark Ralf, told EHI: “The benefits of this scheme are two-fold. Moldova’s health system is not well advanced or developed and so the new computer equipment can go a long way, allowing doctors to share information by e-mail, something that would usually be very hard for them.”
BUPA already donate their redundant computers to Digital Links and were happy to work with the charity to improve the health services for the people of Moldova.
Since the start of 2006 they have sent around 400 PCs to Moldova. The additional 800 PCs will be there third delivery to the former USSR state.
Ralf added: “This project meant that a number of clinics could be woven together to get best practice – so we agreed to pay the freight fees and refurbishment costs. We were happy to work with Digital Links and the Moldovan Ministry of Health, and the benefits have been clear to see.”
The Moldovan health minister, Professor Ababii, expressed his gratitude to Digital Links and BUPA, saying the computers would be used for a range of institutions including the medical university, the main hospitals and primary care clinics throughout the country.
Digital Links are now appealing for more suppliers to come forward and donate funding or more unused PCs to be delivered to the developing world.
“So far, we have distributed 500,000 computers to the developing world. We need many more computers to fulfill our vision of computerizing schools and hospitals in the developing world. Please get in contact with us if you can help or visit our website www.digital-links.org,” the spokesperson said.
Ralf added: “There are huge benefits in disposing of your PCs and allowing Digital Links to reuse the supplies to better equip less developed countries. These state of the art machines can be given a new life in another country, which will help them with medical matters every day.”
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