Our aim is to sustainably provide hand and reconstructive surgical care for the entire South Pacific
Why South Pacific?
Together with our partners in the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, we have started a co-operation with the aim of sustainably providing hand and reconstructive surgical care in this country to encompass and to improve the care for the entire South Pacific. This area consists of 22 Pacific countries and territories with over 30,000 islands - an area comparable to that of Africa and a population of around 10 million people. The population of the island states is widely dispersed, of which 25% live below the poverty line, there are significant geographical distances between the individual islands, which can often only be reached with simple canoes or by air, this leads to a situation where there is limited medical and special surgical care as well as major challenges supporting the long-term development of these services.
People and skills
Inspired and initiated by Dr. Hermann Oberli, who can look back on an exemplary success story with regard to the development and establishment of specialist training for orthopedics in the South Pacific, we developed the vision, based on the current rudimentary supply situation for hand and reconstructive surgery (for which there has been a significant need) to develop a similar sustainable education for these specialized fields.
Generously supported by the Swiss Association ”South Pacific Medical Projects” Medicine in the South Pacific and in partnership with the Pacific Islands Orthopaedic Association (PIOA), after an initial week of evaluation by Dr. med. Konrad Mende and Dr. med. Hermann Oberli on site, it was agreed that in addition to the motivated and qualified partners on site, an appropriate infrastructure including teaching rooms, operating theaters and equipment for hand and microsurgical interventions will be established, initially for 4 years with 8 two-week training modules (2x / Year) for hand and reconstructive surgery.
Locally owned, locally managed
The project is “Locally owned, locally managed”, which means that it is a cooperation between equal partners using the local infrastructure and resources that are also managed locally, with regional and international input. This also means, for example, that any operations are consistently assisted as teaching op’s, since surgery is a craft that cannot be learned theoretically or by watching. Our local partners take over the coordination and organization of the modules, which are initially aimed at the Solomon Islands surgical colleagues in training on site, but are also open to colleagues from other South Pacific islands. We are available as consultants, contacts and teachers on site and, using modern electronic media, also at a distance for the theoretical and practical exchange and transfer of experience and practical surgical skills.
The aim is to progressively and sustainably support the surgeons in training on site with local, national and international networking using the local infrastructure and resources and to enable them to guarantee long-term and permanent high-class hand and reconstructive-surgical patient care. This also includes the collection of all relevant data via existing databases for the critical measurement of change and progress and their evaluation in the context of audits research projects.