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Nusa Tenggara Timur

College Fellows working with local partners provide a range of support services to Nusa Tenggara Timur, developing local medical capacity and skills through service delivery, practical training and skills transfer.

Location
Summary
Achievements
Sumba Eye Program
Contact

Location

• Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is a province of Indonesia located in the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including West Timor, the western half of the island of Timor.
• The province consists of more than 550 islands and is dominated by the three main islands of Flores, Sumba and West Timor.
• Other islands include Adonara, Alor, Ende, Komodo, Lembata, Menipo, Rincah, Rote Island (the southernmost island in Indonesia), Savu, Semau and Solor.
• The province is divided administratively into 14 regencies and one municipality, Kupang.
• The provincial capital is Kupang, on West Timor. The eastern part of Timor is the independent country of East Timor.

Summary

In Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) there is very limited capacity to undertake general surgery, and little or no provision for specialist surgery. Fellows of the College have provided increased specialist services for tertiary health care throughout regencies in NTT, with funding from AusAID throughout 2006 and 2007 and community donations since then.

The College works in collaboration with the Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia, Optometry Giving Sight and other affiliated organisations involved in providing outreach programs in NTT, such as the Sumba Foundation and a number of Church run health organisations.

The program aims to provide specialist medical services at nominated hospitals in NTT through the use of volunteer specialist teams. The teams:

• undertake short visits to NTT to carry out identified health interventions
• provide on-the-job transfer of skills to local general practitioners, surgeons and nurses, including nurse anaesthetists, and other local medical personnel in assessing and treating common conditions and primary trauma care skills.

Services provided include:

• General Surgery
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Orthopaedic Surgery and club foot management
• Ophthalmology – cataract and other surgery
• Optometry – vision screening and distribution of glass to address refractive error

Achievements

Between 2006 and 2009:

• Delivered approximately 4780 consultations and 926 operations across 6 surgical and medical specialties
• Up-skilled local medical staff by providing training for 135 local medical personnel in addition to running 2 Primary Trauma courses and Basic Anaesthesia courses in country for local staff.

The program has delivered the following specialist team visits to Nusa Tenggara Timur to date:

• 2009
  July – Ophthalmology and Optometry (Waikububak, Sumba)
  
  
• 2008
  August – Ophthalmology and Optometry (Waikabubak, Sumba)
  May – Orthopaedic Surgery (Atambua, West Timor)
  
  
• 2007
  November – Primary trauma course and basic anaesthesia course (Atambua, West Timor)
  June – Primary trauma courses and basic anaesthesia courses (Kupang, West Timor)
  June – General Surgery (Larantuka, Flores)
  May to June – Ophthalmology (Waingapu, Sumba)
  May – Orthopaedics and General Surgery (Atambua, West Timor)
  March – Paediatrics and General Surgery (Atambua, West Timor)
  March – General Surgery and Plastics (Soe, West Timor)
  February to March – General Surgery (Larantuka, Flores)
  
  
• 2006
  November to December – General Surgery and Ear, Nose and Throat, ENT (Maumere, Flores)
  November to December – General Surgery (Larantuka, Flores)
  November – General Surgery (Ende, Flores)
  October – Optometry and Ophthalmology (Atambua West Timor)
  September – Orthopaedic Surgery (Soe, West Timor)
  August – General Surgery (Atambua, West Timor)

Sumba Eye Program

The province of Sumba is one of three main islands in NTT. Sumba has a very limited capacity to access general surgery, let alone any specialist surgery. The Sumba Eye Program, established in 2007, is a program targeted at delivering eye-care services to the people of Sumba Island. Read more

Contact

International Development Program
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
College of Surgeons' Gardens
250–290 Spring Street
East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia

Project Director – Mr Mark Moore FRACS

Project Officer – Stephanie Korin
Telephone: +61 3 9249 1211
Fax: +61 3 9276 7431
Email: stephanie.korin@surgeons.org

External Affairs Director – Daliah Moss
Telephone: +61 3 9249 1276
Fax: +61 3 9249 1236
Email: daliah.moss@surgeons.org