Ninth medical team settling in

The National Weekender

By LEAH OMAE
CHINA will continue to strengthen its cooperation and relationship with great support towards the healthcare delivery to the people of Papua New Guinea.
This was revealed by a visiting vice director-general Fang Mingjin of Chongqing Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission. Mingjin said Chongqing, in south-west China was the fourth municipal directly under the central government and has been responsible for sending Chinese medical teams to PNG since 2002.
In 2002, the first China medical team arrived in Port Moresby. By now, there have been nine teams coming to PNG, which consisted of 10 members including eight medical professionals and two assistants (an interpreter and a chef).
Specialists from many different fields of medicine join the teams successively, such as neurosurgeons, anesthetists, urologists, radiologists, oncologists, maxillo-facial surgeons, cardiologists and specialists from obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, paediatrics, orthopedics, etc. Nowadays, surgical nurses are also part of the teams.
On June 25, 2018, director-general Fang Mingjin handed the ninth medical team to the Department of Health to work at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH). Deputy Health Secretary Dr Paison Dakulala said the relationship between PMGH as the country’s referral and teaching hospital and the affiliated hospital of China’s Chongqing Medical University was one that was highly cherished by Papua New Guineans.
Dr Dakulala was excited when receiving the team. Dakulala said the hospital needed expertise in specific areas including neurology, urology, diagnostic capacity in radiology, pain management and chronic pain to help Papua New Guineans.
China has provided treatment to more than 100,000 patients and training to more than 1,000 medical staff at the PMGH. Counsellor Liu Linlin from Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the country said that was the result of fruitful health cooperation between China’s Chongqing Medical University and PMGH for more than 16 years.
Since the ninth medical team arrived in PNG two urologist specialists, Dr He Weiyang the team leader and Dr Pu Xiaofeng, actively exchanged and conducted research with local urologist surgeons of PMGH to prepare, for the local application of new technologies of minimally invasive urological surgery.
Furthermore, the medical team actively gathered information on common diseases in the local department of urological surgery such as severe benign prostatic hyperplasia, urethra stricture, urinary calculi, etc. The team earnestly participated and guided the urological operations, the clinical diagnosis and the treatment, helping PMGH set up norms of common diseases and treatment in urological surgery, assisting to establish the post-operative management system and the construction and management of urological surgery department.
After the medical team quickly completed the procedures such the plasma electrical cutting system and the fibrous ureteroscope all donated by China government, doctors He and Pu effectively communicated with local consultant urologist Dr Sydney James and the PMGH team.
Both teams began the work of patient appointments, preoperative assessment and treatment plan. Dr Huang Hougang, the anesthetist in the team and Xie Zhaorong the surgical nurse carefully prepared, collaborated and cooperated with Dr James and overcame the disadvantages in the hospital, successfully completed the first case of patient with severe benign prostatic hyperplasia by using the transurethral plasmakinetic resection of prostate.
The team also completed the first case of ureterscopic pneumatic lithotripsy, and the first case of ureteroscopic pneumatic lithotripsy to remove difficult double J tube. The three cases of minimally invasive surgery were very successful with small trauma and rapid recovery. All three patients were discharged from the PMGH within two to three days after the surgery. Such results won the high praise from their colleagues
One of the three patients, Pini Malo, 25, of Rigo, Central, praised the technology and the advanced urological equipment to help patients like him. Pini thanked the Chinese and local medical team for removing a tube placed inside his body using minimally invasive urological surgery. The double J tube/stent was inserted in his body last January in an operation.
Pini did not know that the tube was inserted in his body. His health condition worsened and he had to visit PMGH. To his surprise the ultrasound scan identified the tube inserted in his body. Pini would be forever being thankful to Chinese doctors and PMGH urological department for saving his life.
There is a Chinese saying, “It is better to teach how to fish than to give fish”. The ninth medical team to PNG has always been committed to leaving a “medical team that does not go” in the recipient country to benefit the local people. In order to achieve this goal, the medical team carried out live teachings and guidance during the operation, introducing the advanced way of minimally invasive surgery, surgical indications, contraindications and operations essentials.
As a result the local doctors can be familiar with and master the relevant operation skills as soon as possible. The ninth medical team’s positive working attitude, excellent professional skills and selfless technical teaching have won the recognition and appreciation of the medical staff in the urological department and the operating theatre in PMGH, thus, laying a good foundation for the construction of the minimally invasive surgery centre at the hospital.
The ninth China medical team to Papua New Guinea is actively engaged and sharing its skills and knowledge with experience in the new technique of minimally invasive urological surgery at the PMGHsince they arrived in June.

  • Leah Omae is the Public Relations Officer at the Port Moresby General Hospital.