Global Flying Hospitals is the humanitarian medical charity that is the Logistics Resource to the world's humanitarian medical charities. It was founded in 2001 by Neill Newton, to provide medical care in the Developing World. The charity delivers resources, equipment and supplies and transports volunteer medical professionals into regions requiring services with specialised aircraft, including the Boeing 747

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

 Teaching Hospital, to serve residents in major cities. GFH has begun operations using commercial aircraft while the Boeing 747 is being refurbished.

GFH has a similar working model as Orbis International

ORBIS International

Orbis International is an international non-profit non-governmental organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide. Orbis programs focus on the prevention of blindness and the treatment of blinding eye diseases in developing countries...

, the flying eye hospital using a refurbished DC10 aircraft. Global Flying Hospitals is refurbishing a small fleet of aircraft, including a Boeing 747, to cater for a wider range of illnesses and operations. The 747 is being converted into a high technology surgical teaching hospital, backed up by four Hercules C-130 aeroplanes for transport of medical field clinics.

Mission

• Providing Resources and Logistics to other humanitarian medical charities, to enable them to reach further and wider, and treat more people per mission.
• Training of medical professionals in those countries to raise standards
• Supplying of modular transportable field clinics and hospitals
• Supply of medical equipment
• Supply of medicines

Program features

• Specialized aircraft to instigate Stage 1: medical missions, using Boeing 747 aircraft refurbished as high-tech surgical teaching hospital and Hercules C130 cargo craft ferrying mobile field clinics
• Specialized clinics for Stage 2: ongoing treatment; provided by mobile and transportable clinics incorporating patented retractable wheels, designed as dental, ophthalmology and medical clinics, to be placed and secured onsite as permanent fixtures
• Stage 3: Online medical training portal with curriculum provided by the world’s leading medical colleges and medical professionals.

Training onboard the Boeing vie video conferencing rooms linked to surgical theaters, and recording of medical procedures for reference.

Online Medical Training

GFH has developed an innovative medical training regime featuring medical procedures, available for the medical professionals in developing countries. This training focus is part of an intensive-immersion program to help raise countries to western standards, in order to establish them as self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

Restructuring

Between September and December 2008, GFH was reorganised. Its planned operation hub in Malaysia, was closed because that country's Tekah Airport, which had been selected as a base, had a runway too short for the charity's aeroplanes.

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, is the base for the USA Region Office and Macau SAR, China is the base for the Asia Region Head Office, overseered by the International CEO. Newton is the organisation's Chairman and Founder

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

.

The charity is currently working to open three operational bases; one in Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

 to serve West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

, one in Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 to serve South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 and one in Macao

Mação

Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....

 to serve South-East Asia, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

.

International media coverage

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's Quincentennial news magazine Surgeon's News featured GFH. Canada's Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons featured GFH in its journal, Outlook. ENT News, a trade journal covering audiology

Audiology

Audiology is the branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Its practitioners, who treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage are audiologists. Employing various testing strategies Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , -logia) is...

 and ear, nose and throat

Otolaryngology

Otolaryngology or ENT is the branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders....

specialisms, featured GFH at inception in its January 2002 issue in an article.