Volunteer locum cover in the Pacific 2024
Over 30 anaesthetists volunteered their time to provide locum cover in Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and across Fiji during the Pacific Society of Anaesthetists annual meeting in August 2024. This assistance is deeply appreciated and invaluable in the opportunity it affords our Pacific-based colleagues to attend the meeting; for the important CME and to network with colleagues across the region.
Some volunteers have kindly shared their experiences and photos with us following their week in the Pacific.
The Global Health Committee (GHC) facilitate this locum cover each year. They will be seeking expressions of interest for 2025 once the PSA meeting dates have been confirmed.
Tuvalu
Tuvalu is a remote Polynesian Island nation of just 10,000 people. In Funafuti the capital, we worked alongside a skilled team of local staff and locum specialists from Fiji. We were made welcome by the people and enjoyed their rich culture.
We will remember Tuvalu for the multipurpose airstrip, dogs galore, interdisciplinary cooperation, good anaesthetic resources, motorbike accidents, caesarians, fresh tuna, clear waters and much more.
Samoa
Talofa lava! Our team spent the PSA week gassing (and spinalling) at Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital in Apia, Samoa. Dr Helena Stone (Waikato) was already there on sabbatical and we were fortunate enough to have her wisdom and experience to help orient us to the four-table theatre complex and ICU. Two local anaesthetists and a pre-trainee were also on hand to help. We were doubled up in theatre most days and kept busy with amputations, laparotomies, caesarean sections and ortho trauma! The biggest challenges we faced were working without anaesthetic technicians (never take your AT for granted again!) and the variable supply of equipment which was often in a bit of a jumble on top of the anaesthetic machine or in the storeroom. We arrived in Samoa armed with a few basic items (blunt fill needles, spinal needles, scrubs and gloves) but were otherwise at the mercy of what was available at the time.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our time in Samoa. It was a real pleasure to work with the local team who were all very helpful and patient with us. We would highly recommend the volunteer locum experience to anyone who is looking for an extremely rewarding personal and professional challenge.
Labasa, Fiji
After arriving Sunday afternoon and doing a short orientation, the registrar leaving says, “Thanks for taking over. The next case is a neonate a few hours old with gastroschisis for a silo procedure. Welcome to Labasa!”
Labasa is a 160-bed hospital providing all the theatre services for Vanua Levu in Fiji (an island with a population of about 135,000 people). You can expect to cover theatre (acutes and electives), adult ICU and clinics. Labasa lived up to its name as the ‘friendly north’ and the staff were extremely welcoming. Two very competent registrars quickly schooled us in the Labasa way of doing things. There are some shortages of the equipment and medications we’re used to, but it is quite well-equipped, and you have everything you need to practice safely.
Labasa provides an experience of a side of Fiji not often encountered by tourists. When you’re not working, you can enjoy visiting the vibrant fruit market, walking along the river, swimming in the hotel pool or heading off for a day trip. The food was really good and I could not get enough of the delicious curries and roti rolls! Expect to be greeted with a friendly “Bula Bula” by everyone you pass in the street.
Suva, Fiji
Myself, and a team of nine other anaesthetists, from across Australia and New Zealand provided Locum cover during the PSA conference at Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH) in Suva, Fiji. CWMH is Fiji’s largest hospital with around 500 beds. It serves as the tertiary referral centre for most surgical specialties and complex cases from across the Pacific.
During the week we covered five theatres and daytime in ICU. Although the differences in system and culture provided their challenges, we had a few super helpful registrars who had stayed behind to keep us right. I hope the teaching we provided them was as useful as their local expertise. I quickly relearned the value in double and triple-checking drugs (as most of them look identical in brown 1ml vials) and the level 3 machine check we’ve grown a custom to being electronic in Wellington. Learning to give all anaesthetics with no infusion pumps was interesting and Part 1 knowledge came in handy while using Isoflurane. Unfortunately for some of us, the Halothane vaporiser was being used as a doorstop to the changing rooms and wasn’t in use anymore. Interesting cases from the week included a feeding tube placement in a patient with a challenging airway due to late presentation fungating facial SCC and a caesarean section in a patient with Mitral Stenosis without access to the usual advanced monitoring (we managed to procure an infusion pump for this case thankfully).
Providing Locum cover for the PSA conference was a challenging yet fulfilling experience that forced me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to realise what can be done with limited resources. It also made me incredibly thankful for the environment in which we work here in New Zealand.
Tonga
Lautoka, Fiji
