In Conversation with…Dr Rachel Price

In Conversation with…Dr Rachel Price

by | Mar 10, 2026 | Health

Dolen Cymru-Lesotho’s Health Chair, Aaron Pritchard in conversation with GP Registrar, Rachel Price.

Dr Rachel Price is a GP Registrar in South Wales and visited Lesotho in 2025 having heard through HEIW about a new Global Health partnership offering the chance to travel to Lesotho and experience family medicine in Leribe District.

Firstly, thank you very much, Rachel for taking time to share your experience with Dolen Cymru-Lesotho.

Could you please start by telling us a little bit about your current role and work as a GP registrar in South Wales?

Rachel: I am currently in my final year of GP training and truly enjoy working in the rural community where I am based. I feel fortunate to be part of a fantastic and supportive team. Every day is varied and full of surprises, which is what keeps me interested in general practice. 

How did you first come to learn about the link between Wales and Lesotho and the opportunity to take part in the Leribe Family Medicine Programme?

Rachel: Growing up in Wales, I had always been aware of Dolen Cymru and the special link between Wales and Lesotho, but it was something I had never really explored in depth. When I started GP training, I assumed that any opportunities to travel or work overseas would have to wait until after I had completed my training. I couldn’t have been more wrong. In my second year of training, we received an email from HEIW about a new Global Health partnership offering the chance to travel to Lesotho and experience family medicine and healthcare in a very different setting. The opportunity immediately resonated with me, and I knew it was something I had to apply for. 

Could you tell us a little bit about the Leribe Family Medicine training programme and what your visit involved?

Rachel: The Leribe Family Medicine training programme is run by the Lesotho Boston Health Alliance (LeBoHA). Lesotho does not have its own medical school, so many talented Basotho students leave the country to study medicine abroad and often do not return. Those who do return frequently face challenging working conditions, including placements in remote mountainous areas, responsibility for a broad range of complex clinical problems with limited support, professional isolation, poorly resourced hospitals, low salaries, and few opportunities for career development. LeBoHA was established to address these challenges by strengthening health professional education and development, with a particular focus on delivering holistic care in district hospitals and primary healthcare settings.  

During our visit, we were based at one of the district hospitals, where we shadowed doctors on the Family Medicine training programme as well as clinicians from other specialties across the hospital. This gave us valuable insight into how care is delivered in a low resource setting, and the breadth of practice and skills required of family physicians in Lesotho. We were fortunate to attend one of the programme’s teaching weeks, which focused on HIV and tuberculosis and was both highly educational and fascinating. We also spent time at the LeBoHA-run Centre of Excellence, which is set up similarly to a GP practice, with a strong emphasis on long-term chronic disease management and holistic patient care. In addition, we were able to join several community outreach projects, gaining further insight into healthcare delivery beyond the hospital setting. During our time there, we also completed a small quality improvement project to help update the hospital admission proformas. 

What do you feel you have most learnt from working with the Family Medicine Training programme in Leribe and that you think Primary Care providers in Wales could learn from, especially?

Rachel: Working alongside the doctors in Leribe was a deeply formative experience. Witnessing the adaptability and resourcefulness of doctors providing care in challenging conditions gave me a newfound perspective on my colleagues in Wales. Many of them trained in low-to-middle-resource settings outside of the UK, and since returning I’ve valued the chance to hear about their diverse professional journeys. It’s clear we often under-appreciate the unique skill sets and resilience these clinicians bring to our healthcare system.

The experience also prompted reflection on my own practice within the NHS. In Wales, we are fortunate to have ready access to investigations, and I became more aware of how easily we can over-rely on these resources and how wasteful we can sometimes be. In contrast, clinicians in Leribe depend heavily on strong clinical skills and careful decision-making to provide care within significant resource limitations.

The most significant impact on my practice however relates to a profound shift in how I view preventative health. Observing the high prevalence of late-stage cervical cancer in Lesotho, a direct result of the lack of a national screening and vaccination programmes and high HIV rates, was a stark lesson in the value of early intervention. Seeing the devastating human cost of cases diagnosed at an incurable stage served as a sobering reminder of what is at stake. This experience has transformed my view of screening from a routine administrative task into a vital clinical priority; I return to Wales with a renewed commitment to promoting these services, having seen firsthand the reality of life without them. 

How do you see your role with the Lesotho Link evolving in the future?

Rachel: I see my role with the Lesotho Link as an ongoing and evolving commitment rather than a one-off experience. Having benefited so much personally and professionally from the partnership, I am keen to remain engaged in a way that is sustainable alongside my clinical career in Wales. At present this may involve supporting future trainees who are interested in the programme and sharing learning from the Leribe Family Medicine Training Programme within my training scheme and with others. 

As I progress in my career, I would hope to remain involved with the Lesotho Link through continued collaboration, advocacy for global health partnerships, and, if possible, future visits that support sustainability rather than short-term clinical input. Above all, I see my role as helping to strengthen a mutually beneficial relationship, ensuring that learning flows in both directions and continues for many years to come. 

Is there one particular memory from your visit that has stayed with you most strongly and you would be happy to share?

Rachel: While I have so many wonderful memories, one moment in Leribe stands out. Jenna and I were simply walking down the street when two young schoolchildren waved and greeted us with a cheerful ‘Shwmae!’ It was a small gesture, but to hear a Welsh greeting so far from home really brings to life the strength of the bond between Wales and Lesotho. 

Thank you for your time, Rachel and looking forward to your ongoing involvement with and support of the health partnerships between Wales and Lesotho. 

Care and Cardboard 📦💡

Care and Cardboard 📦💡

by | May 14, 2025 | Education, Health

The Physiotherapy and Outreach Program Lesotho (POP Lesotho) is a nonprofit company registered in Lesotho in 2022. It aims to provide children with disabilities in Lesotho with the support and opportunities they need to help them fulfil their potential.  

It achieves this by capacity building with caregivers in the community; the provision of assistive equipment, supporting inclusive education and enabling environments. The project is community-based, and its outreach program operates across three districts, Maseru, Leribe and Butha-Buthe, with a particular focus on children with cerebral palsy (CP). Most of the children POP Lesotho works with in the community have a high level of disability and cannot sit or stand without support or mobilise without a wheelchair.  

Using a grant from the British High Commission, POP built an Assistive Technology Centre (ATC) at Abia High School in February 2023. Here, it makes assistive devices out of recycled cardboard, a skill called Appropriate Paper-based Technology (APT), and repairs and recycles wheelchairs. In the last two years, POP has produced and delivered over 150 APT devices, repaired and recycled dozens of wheelchairs and purchased seventy-five appropriate, robust wheelchairs using donations from friends in Wales. As well as improving quality of life at home, many of these assistive devices have been used to help children access education. This year, we look toward building a second ATC at the Technology College in Hlotse in partnership with Catholic Comprehensive Community College. This workshop will serve children in Leribe with assistive devices, as up to now, all equipment in Leribe has been transported from the workshop at Abia High School.  

A newly qualified graduate occupational therapist (OT) was appointed in March. She will help cover the outreach program in Maseru District and the school’s program at Ha Seleso and Abia High School. Her skills are a great asset which complement POP’s skills base. Since February, we have had two soldiers on placement from the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Physiotherapy Department to assist with APT production, wheelchair repairs and physiotherapy with the children. The soldiers get training, POP gets staff, and the children have improved access to physiotherapy, so it’s a win-win situation for everyone and helps sustain a physiotherapy skills base in Lesotho.  

We also work closely with parent facilitators from Malamulele Onward who support children with CP in the community. With their assistance over the last few years, we have empowered hundreds of children and their caregivers with physiotherapy skills and health care knowledge across Maseru, Leribe and Butha Buthe. We have now received funding to purchase a suitable 4×4 to reach out even further and go to the Highlands and reach children in communities that have very little opportunity to access health care.  

With the help of Dr Jemma Wright, POP has used its APT database to develop an abstract for a research study. The abstract is titled “The Physiotherapy and Outreach Program Lesotho: Creating Assistive Equipment in a Low-Resource Setting”. This was presented South African Child Health Priorities Association Virtual Conference in November 2024 and was well received with lots of positive comments, engaging other interested parties in this work.  

In March 2025, it was presented at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health conference in Glasgow. This is a prestigious paediatric research conference and an opportunity to raise the profile of the APT work POP is doing in Lesotho, as well as to monitor and evaluate it. The conference was well attended, and the presentation was made by a fellow physiotherapist who visited POP in September 2023. The RCPCH were so impressed by the presentation that they are now looking to see if they can introduce APT to Nigeria. The poster for the abstract presented in Glasgow is shown below.  

Now, with the building of a second workshop in Leribe, an opportunity to develop this abstract and collect more data presents itself. Data and information can be used to show policymakers the need for resources and how to plan long-term strategies. Without data, these children remain invisible, so the collection and presentation of credible data is very important for raising awareness with the government and affecting long-term strategies.  

To support data collection and awareness raising, mums making up an informal CP group in Leribe have been encouraged by POP to register as a group to bring cohesiveness, direction and political influence using its two hundred members. This group can provide information to local social workers and health officials and raise greater awareness of CP and the health and social issues that CP caregivers face within Lesotho. The second half of 2025 looks very interesting for POP Lesotho, and we look forward to continuing to make a very positive impact on the lives of children with disabilities in Lesotho. Please visit our website for more information: poplesotho.org 

LDF Soldiers on placement at the workshop 

The picture above explains POP’s Process of Creating Assertive Equipment in a Low Resource Setting

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