Countries and colleges collaborate to improve access in Oceania and Southeast Asia

摘要

The independent island nations of the South Pacific (population 10,000–1 million each), Papua New Guinea (PNG) (7.5 million), and Timor-Leste (1.3 million) are low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with limited access to safe, affordable surgery and anesthesia (see Table 1). Although all of these nations offer free national health care coverage, a high proportion of their populations still lack access to surgical care because of a shortage of appropriately trained health care workers, infrastructure, facilities, and geographic boundaries. The training of specialists in surgery, anesthesia, and obstetrics began through the University of PNG, Port Moresby, in 1975, but only since 1999 has this training been available at the Fiji School of Medicine, Suva, which is now part of Fiji National University for other Pacific Nations.1,2 The Australia Timor-Leste Program of Assistance for Specialist Services (ATLASS) developed by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS)? has employed a range of training programs in PNG, Fiji, Indonesia, and Malaysia to support a small cohort of physicians who have met specialist qualifications in the following areas: surgery, anesthesia, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), and pediatrics.3