Australia aids heart programme

THE Australian government says it will provide more than K200,000 this year to support the annual operation open heart programme in the country.AusAID said the funds would enable Australian doctors to perform life-saving surgery and to share experiences and pass on skills to their Papua New Guinean colleagues. The Australian government has been funding the programme since 2002.
A medical team consisting of 64 surgeons, anaesthetists, perfusionists, nurses and bio-medical engineers will begin a week of cardiac surgery in Port Moresby.Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG Ian Kemish said there were 763 individuals who, without the OOH programme, would not have had the money or opportunity to have surgery.  Since the programme began in 1993, it has saved the lives of 568 children and 195 adults who had surgeries. closed and open heart surgeries. Skills are also shared and passed on from the Australians to their PNG counterparts.