WGO Suva Training Center, Fiji
WGO Suva Training Centre at the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), inaugurated in October 2008. In close consultation with FSM, the first program for specialist training in Gastroenterology in the region has been developed for integration into the School's postgraduate training in medicine.
The Center was chosen as the receiving institution of a generous endoscopic donation to the WGO by Fujinon - A Fuji-Film Company - in 2009.
FSM is one of only three institutions in Fiji and the Pacific Island nations to offer local medical training in the region. With such limited training available and a regional population totalling approximately 1.7 million people, the ratio of doctors per 1000 population is at a mere 0.1 - 0.4. The shortage of doctors in nearby countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, has contributed to this “brain drain”, as local doctors seek employment abroad. From 1987 to 2002, 510 doctors left the government health service in Fiji, while during the same period, only 284 graduated from the Fiji School of Medicine.
Until recently, specialist training in the South Pacific was unavailable and has often been undertaken abroad, making it difficult for doctors who have become accustomed to life in their new environment to return home again once their training has been completed. Thus, the lack of local specialist training has been conducive to the “brain drain” being witnessed in the region. However, local postgraduate programs have been shown to help combat this trend in that doctors-in-training work for most of the time in their home country while learning to diagnose and treat disease with the resources available, thereby making them less likely to leave their home country once specialist qualification has been achieved.
The timely arrival of the equipment at the beginning of August 2009 allowed immediate use of the equipment during the center’s annual training Course. Thanks to Fujinon’s generosity, the Center has organised a new endoscopy unit, which was inaugurated during the August course. Members of the Gastroenterological Nurses College of Australia, assisting the Australian gastroenterologists in Fiji, supported the installation of the equipment. The donated equipment will go far to improve the training conditions for the first locally trained Gastroenterologists within the region as well as patient healthcare delivery.
