Invest in training health specialists

I WRITE in response to the article on Monday, September 10.
I would like to commend the Doctors Michael Cooper, Chris Accott, A/Prof Albert Shun, [and many other Australian Drs] who pay their own tickets and volunteer their time away from their work and families every year to come and spend 2-4 weeks each year helping us.
They have expertise which we don’t have and are willing to help save lives in this country.
These three doctors in particular have been coming quietly into Papua New Guinea every year for the last 12-15 years and do their work quietly and go back.
Many of their operated patients are now adults living normal lives in the country.
Some of these patients would not have had the money to go overseas or even travel into the major hospitals in the country to access specialist services.
Many health workers and doctors have also benefited from working with them in terms of acquiring new skills and knowledge.
I would also like to suggest to the health department and national government be serious and spend more and invest in manpower training in specialist areas of healthcare where we are lacking in skills and expertise or short in numbers.
We cannot continue to rely on overseas visiting teams for the another 30 years.
Also the national government should fund more rural outreach programs made up of fully local teams of specialist medical teams to visit remote areas in the country to do health care and surgery instead of just being based in major hospitals like Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagen.
In this way expertise is spread around the country making it easier for those rural people who are not able to come into these major hospitals for expert service due to lack of finance or other reasons.

A Karu