27 Jan 2003

Turtle Island Resort treats more needy patients than ever in Northern Fiji

5:08 pm on 27 January 2003

The annual free health clinic at Fiji's Turtle Island resort has performed a record number of operations on patients otherwise unable to get health care throughout the year.

The just-ended week-long clinic is a tradition that has been running annually for the past thirteen years, treating patients mainly from Northern Fiji for free while the resort's doors are closed to paying guests.

The clinic, run by medical teams from Australia, New Zealand and the US, operates for a further two weeks next month which resort manager Rob Bersford says will continue the much-needed eye care service for the locals:

"We did over a hundred and forty operations, in fact the president of Fiji's wife had a cataract removed from her eyes and she's recovering well, but no everybody gets the same treatment here and people who live in the villages without any power or electricity or communications is visited. We have a team of doctors go out visiting and informing everybody that a clinic is about to start and then assessing the peoples needs and then nominating the people who come down to have the work done."

Turtle Island resort manager Rob Bersford.