KidsOR to host House of Lords event!

'No Room to Operate; an omission in the global health agenda...'

We're incredibly excited to announce the launch of an event we will be hosting this month at the House of Lords! 

The event which will take place on Wednesday 22nd November from 3.30-5pm, will focus on the absence of, and raise awareness on the need to include, global children's surgery on the UK global health and international development agenda.

We're delighted to be joined by our chair for the afternoon, Prof. IIora Gillian Finlay - Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Crossbench Member and Deputy Speaker, House of Lords, Co-Chair APPG Global Health, Professor of Palliative Medicine, and our panel; Dr Rocco Friebel Health Economist, Co-Director, LSE-RCS England Global Surgery Unit, Steven Sabey Deputy Director – Global Health Strategy, Head of the Health Strategy and Security Department Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Prof. Kokila Lakhoo Professor of Global Paediatric Surgery and Dr. Zipporah Gathuya Paediatric Anaesthesiologist, Member of Smile Train Global Medical Advisory Board, Secretary- Global Initiative For Children’s Surgery.

Our work has created capacity for more than 100,000 paediatric operations in low- and middle-income countries. But there's still a huge amount of work to be done. We're more determined than ever to use our platform to advocate for increased attention and investment in children's surgery across the world - an issue which requires addressing urgently.

Attendance is by invitation only. If you're interested please get in touch with us via this link.

More information about our speakers...

Prof. IIora Gillian Finlay - Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Crossbench Member and Deputy Speaker, House of Lords
Co-Chair APPG Global Health
Professor of Palliative Medicine


Professor Ilora Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is an independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, and a Deputy Speaker. She is a member of the House of Lords Special Inquiry Committee on the Integration of Primary and Community Care. She co-chairs several All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including Global Health. She has pushed legislation on many health issues, securing the Chief Coroner, banning smoking in public places, recently ensuring that the Health and Care Act now includes palliative care is a core NHS service and high-street cosmetic procedures become regulated. She was a Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying Bill and chaired the Select committee of Science and Technology inquiry into Allergy. She holds an Honorary Professorship at Cardiff University, has taught and lectured widely and has over 230 papers in peer-reviewed journals.  She was named Welsh Woman of the year in 1996, Dod’s Peer of the Year in 2008, given the Livery Company of Wales’ lifetime achievement award 2014, and was a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2010.  She was listed in the 100 most influential Women in Westminster by Politics Home in 2022 and in 2023. She is President of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, a past-President of the Royal Society of Medicine, BMA, Medical Women’s Federation and the Association for Palliative Medicine, and Vice-President of several charities, including City Hospice, Hospice UK and Marie Curie.


Dr Rocco Friebel
Health Economist
Co-Director, LSE-RCS England Global Surgery Unit


Dr Rocco Friebel is Co-Director of the Global Surgery Policy Unit, a strategic partnership between the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the London School of Economics and Political Science, which focuses on evidence-informed policymaking through surgical system assessments and surgical economics. Dr Friebel works closely with governments across several low- and middle-income countries, and currently acts as special advisor to the Ministry of Health of the Federal Republic of Somalia. A trained Health Economist, at the London School of Economics and Political Science he is the Deputy Director of LSE Health, Assistant Professor of Health Policy, and Programme Director of the Executive MSc in Healthcare Decision-Making in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. To enhance international research and policy corporation, he chairs the European Health Policy Group and is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Economics, Policy and Law. Dr Friebel holds a PhD in health economics from Imperial College London.


Steven Sabey
Deputy Director – Global Health Strategy, Head of the Health Strategy and Security Department Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)


Steven Sabey is Head of the Health Strategy and Security Department at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. He is responsible for overall global health strategy, key bilateral and multilateral relationships, and cross-government coordination, as well as readiness for future outbreaks and pandemics, and wider global health security issues. Prior to this role, Steven was Cabinet Office Deputy Director for climate, nature and energy in the run up to and through the UK’s COP Presidency. Steven’s previous career has included two other global health roles, as well as roles leading the UK’s relationship with the World Bank, as Ministerial Private Secretary, and overseas postings in Africa and the Middle East. Steven also spent a number of years working with the United Nations, both as part of a General Assembly Presidency team, and in the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and UNDP in China. Steven lives in London with his wife and daughter.


Prof. Kokila Lakhoo
Professor of Global Paediatric Surgery
Paediatric Surgeon – University Of Oxford and Children’s Hospital In Oxford

Professor Kokila Lakhoo (PhD, FRCS (Edin+Eng), FCS(SA), FCS(PAED),MRCPCH(UK), MBCHB) is a professor of Global paediatric Surgery and a paediatric surgeon at the University of Oxford and Children’s Hospital in Oxford. She has honorary professorship at 3 African Universities namely, University of CapeTown and University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. Her research profile in paediatric surgery is extensive with emphasis on birth defects, trauma, and tumours. Her research and clinical capacity building collaboration mainly lies with Tanzania, Bangladesh and S.Africa. She leads global surgery and directs courses on global surgery for Oxford University. She is the immediate past president of Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS)and the international desk for the British Association for Paediatric Surgeons. She has 6 books, 92 chapters and 389 publications to her name.



Dr. Zipporah Gathuya
Paediatric Anaesthesiologist
Member of SmileTrain Global Medical Advisory Board
Secretary- Global Initiative For Children’s Surgery

Dr Zipporah Gathuya is an Internationally renowned Paediatric Anaesthesiologist and Public health specialist with more than twenty years of experience both in the public and private sector.She has been focusing on access to safe, affordable, and high-quality anaesthesia and surgery, especially for children. She is a member of the Global Medical Advisory Board for Smile Train and is the Secretary of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery. She is passionate about education and safety in paediatric anaesthesia and was instrumental in the setting up and running of the Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowship at the University of Nairobi, the first of its kind in East and Central Africa. She is currently involved in the Paediatric Anaesthesia Training in Africa (PATA), which runs Paediatric Anaesthesia Fellowships in Uganda, Zambia, and Nigeria while also aiming to improve paediatric anaesthesia skills for all anaesthesia providers for children in Africa. She works as a Paediatric Anaesthesiologist at The Nairobi Hospital, Kenya.

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