A DOCTOR based at the QE2 Hospital in WGC is to spend a year in Africa setting up a state-of-the-art hospital.

Sigmund Wilkey, a consultant in the hospital’s A&E Department, will spend 12 months helping to develop an emergency department at the Delta State University Hospital (DELSUTH) in Nigeria.

When fully operational, DELSUTH will use cash collected from private patients to provide free treatment for the poor.

Nigerian-born Mr Wilkey, who moved to the UK in 1991, said: “It is the only hospital of its kind as far as I’m aware.”

The 52-year-old had previously declined a full time role at the hospital, but now believes the time is right for him to devote all his time and energy to the project in its final stages.

“Things have progressed a lot,” he said.

“We’re now at the stage where people need to be trained and I don’t think that is something I can do just by going for a few weeks at a time.”

He added: “The idea is to train local consultants within one to two years.

“We need to get them to a level that we feel confident to leave them to develop the hospital.”

The married father-of-two will be leaving for Nigeria on May 1.