Supporting a sustainable workforce across the Pacific can cost less than one cup of coffee a week!
Join the Pacific Anaesthesia Collaborative Training (PACT) Programme donor community, supporting a sustainable and safe anaesthesia workforce in the Pacific region.
Thanks to the generous contributions from anaesthetists and friends across the motu alongside the Seelye Trust, Interplast, and Pacific Community Communauté du Pacifique (SPC), PACT is currently supporting five Fellows completing their anaesthesia training at Fiji National University (FNU).
The training pathway in the Pacific region consists of:
- A one-year Diploma in Anaesthesia.
- Application to and completion of FNU’s three-year MMed Anaesthesia Masters programme. Earning a qualification comparable to the ANZCA Fellowship.
- These anaesthetists return home where they can provide consultant services for their community and mentor future anaesthetists.
Trainees and their home countries struggle to meet the costs of the FNU MMed Anaesthesia Masters programme (approximately NZD $20,000 per year). It’s a huge barrier to anaesthesia development in the Pacific.
At the current level of funding, the Pacific region will not meet the Global Safe Surgery target of five anaesthetists per 100,000 people (1). Their stretched workforce risks burnout as anaesthetists move to other countries, change specialties, or leave medicine altogether.
In response, the NZSA Global Health Committee established PACT to provide long-term funding to support more Pacific trainees through their Diploma and Masters programmes. PACT hopes to increase the number of anaesthetists with an MMed Anaesthesia in the Pacific to six more than local funding can support by 2027.
Over the past two years, PACT proudly celebrated the graduations of Dr Cecilia Vaai-Bartley (Samoa) and Dr Sweta Mudaliar (Fiji). Both are now working as consultant anaesthetists in their home countries. Current PACT Fellows Dr Angelline Phatu (Vanuatu); Dr Allan Seniloli (Fiji); Dr Nikish Narayan (Fiji); Dr Phil Temakon (Vanuatu); and Dr Esjae Sesega (Samoa) are all well underway in their training at FNU.
Just 20 more regular donors would fund six months of living expenses for a PACT Fellow in Suva enrolled in Fiji National University’s (FNU) MMed Anaesthesia programme.
Want to get involved?
If you can spare just $5 a week, less than a cup of coffee! You can help support anaesthesia training and the development of a sustainable workforce in the Pacific.
Want to know more? Visit the PACT webpage.
(1) Kempthorne P, Morriss WW, Mellin-Olsen J, Gore-Booth J. The WFSA Global Anesthesia Workforce Survey. Anesth Analg. 2017 Sep;125(3):981-990. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000002258. PMID: 28753173.
