Every time I come back to England from Kenya I always feel a little strange. The daze one feels on returning home and gazing upon our wealth and excess and mindless consumerism has been termed by some as 'reverse culture shock' - however I think it extends far beyond a confusing emotion about simply comparing countries and cultures.

The sadness I feel in my heart right now is about the injustice in our world - it is not a new feeling just more poignant. Even having been involved in work in Kenya for the last 5 years, there is no substitute to physically being in the dry heat, the relentless dust and the oppressive poverty to make you remember why you were there.

The Kenyan Orphan Project (KOP) team of 20 doctors and nurses returned from Kenya 2 days ago having completed a 10 day clinical visit that consisted of educational activities, project visits and 8 free medical camps. The medical camps were held mostly in rural locations where disease and poverty are endemic and are confounded by poor community infrastructure - specifically access to healthcare.

The KOP group of doctors and nurses - predominantly from the RUH - worked alongside a team of Kenyan medics, pharmacists and volunteers in hot and difficult conditions with an enormous number of patients. Common conditions were Malaria, HIV/AIDS related conditions, Tuberculosis and malnutrition - but a wide range of other injuries and illnesses were also seen. The medical camps were hectic but successful and by the end the group had seen around 14,000 patients in total.

The UK team found the harsh reality on the ground in Kenya very challenging on a number of levels. In a part of the world where HIV/AIDS prevalence is around 1 in 4, where up to a third of all children are thought soon to be orphans and where people try to survive on less than a pound a day a sense of global perspective soon creeps in.

The group saw many very sick children and adults and contrary to what we are used to here in England, with our limited resources in the camps and similarly under-resourced and under-funded government institutions, many simply had to be left to die. It quickly becomes difficult to take seriously 4 hour waiting targets or NHS cost-saving strategies or the UK public's talk of 'how terrible our health service is.' Whilst accepting that everything in life is relative, I suspect that no amount of reasoning will shake the memories of some the scenes witnessed by the team in the last week.