Australian Interplast Team to Change the Lives of Fijians

11 September 2009
Fiji citizens requiring plastic and reconstructive surgery will have free treatment when an Australian team from the organization, Interplast, visits the country for two weeks beginning 21 September.

The Australian Government through AusAID funds approximately 50 surgical teams every year in the Pacific. The assistance, under AusAID's Pacific Islands Program, fills specific gaps in local medical services and provides capacity building to local medical staff.

With assistance from AusAID the five member team, which includes a surgeon, two anaesthetists, a theatre nurse and a coordinator, will begin with a consultative clinic at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, before moving onto the life changing surgery.

Patients with conditions including cleft lips and palates, scarring from burns, hand injuries and tumours are urged to contact the Surgical Unit at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital for an appointment.

Since 1995 Australian Government-funded medical volunteers have provided clinical visits to eleven Pacific Island Countries undertaking approximately 37,500 consultations and 11,000 surgical procedures.

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