MORE professional training is needed for cardiac surgeons and other health workers to raise the health standards in PNG.
With an aim to train and share their medical knowledge and skills, a team from the National Heart Centre, or SingHealth, are at Port Moresby General Hospital to carry out heart operations.
Cardiologist Dr Leslie Bahn Kawa said funding and man power were some of the challenges that hospitals and the Department of Health are facing.
“The need for training local doctors and health practitioners is the way forward to building manpower capacity so we can treat our patients better.
“The hospital has planned to send some of the doctors and health specialists to undergo training overseas so that we can carry out heart operations on our own,” he said.
“We cannot depend on specialists from overseas to come and carry out the work here, it is about time we provide our people the professionalism that we have gained from the training from overseas.”
SingHealth group’s senior director program development Alice Pang said providing professional cardiac training was a great opportunity for the local doctors to gain more skills and experience to carry out heart operations in the country.
“Currently, six patients with heart defects will be undergoing heart operations that will be conducted by the team from Operation Open Heart,” she said.
Ms Pang said the team has been here for the last eight years but this is the first time they have helped local doctors carry out heart operations.
She said a couple of PNG surgeons have undergone training in Singapore and have come to give back to their patients and apply their skills gained.
The group also donated medical equipment including a by-pass machine, two electrocardiograms and other instruments for the team.. Post Courier
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