Transcript
PRUE INGRAM - The situation in the Pacific islands is that there is only one trained plastic surgeon who is based in Fiji and all the other surgeons within the Pacific are general surgeons and aren't able to necessarily learn those specialist skills just because the demands on them are so great. We work very closely with the existing surgeons, but there are some that really need some specialist input and they're usually things like cleft lip and palate, scarring from burns, hand injuries, sometimes tumours, sometimes wounds and what the locals do is often screen those cases for us and then our teams come and prioritise which cases are most clinically urgent.
SELA JANE HOPGOOD - In regards to the one plastic surgeon based in Fiji, if someone in Tonga needed urgent attention later on in the year, would that mean that patient would have to travel over for it?
PI - The difficulty with a lot of this surgery and with the resources available is that generally they would have to wait, so one of the things that the team does when they first arrive would do a clinic where they will assess all the people who have presented for surgery and sometimes if it's a baby with a cleft lip and palate, they might not be quite well enough for the surgery or they might not have quite enough conditions. We try and do an annual visit. What people have to do generally is wait in the meantime. In rare circumstances they may travel to another country, but usually they're waiting for the team to come.
SJH - So how many patients does the team get to see in the few days that they spend in the islands?
PI - Yeah it depends very much on who presents, but generally there's somewhere between 70 and 90 cases that they would consult on and usually somewhere between 35 and 50 surgeries that take place within that time, so you can see with the gap between the surgery and the consultations that there's more need than we're able to meet on an annual visit.
SJH - Is there a reason why the free surgeries happen at the beginning of the year?
PI- It's always negotiated with the hospital and with the Ministry of Health. There are a number of obviously other volunteer teams that come through over the years so they need to fit that in. We've come up with a time that's mutually suitable to both our team and to the hospital. First off, the hospital identifies when they would like us to come and we're able to then select the volunteers to go with that programme.
SJH - How do people in Tonga who are in need of this surgery get in touch with your team?
PI - Yeah look I would encourage them to make contact with the hospital, so the Vaiola central hospital and let them know that they would like some support from Interplast. The doctors there will able to sort of give a bit of a sense about whether they may be suitable for surgery, but then they would all be reviewed by the team. We also will be sending a physiotherapist with the team to work with the local physiotherapist and also to help the surgical team with some of the procedures, often related to say the hand injuries and the need for splints and exercises and things like that.
