Surgical capacity building in Timor-Leste: a review of the first 15 years of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons-led Australian Aid programme Guest, Glenn D., Scott, David F., Xavier, Joao P., Martins, Nelson, Vreede, Eric, Chennal, Antony, Moss, Daliah and Watters, David A. 2016, Surgical capacity building in Timor-Leste: a review of the first 15 years of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons-led Australian Aid programme, ANZ journal of surgery, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1111/ans.13768. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Surgical capacity building in Timor-Leste: a review of the first 15 years of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons-led Australian Aid programme Author(s) Guest, Glenn D. Scott, David F. Xavier, Joao P. Martins, Nelson Vreede, Eric Chennal, Antony Moss, Daliah Watters, David A. Journal name ANZ journal of surgery Start page 1 End page 5 Total pages 5 Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Place of publication London, Eng. Publication date 2016-09-20 ISSN 1445-2197 Keyword(s) Australian Aid capacity building Cuban Medical Brigade global surgery health workforce low income country Royal Australian College of Surgeons surgical burden of disease surgical training Timor-Leste Summary BACKGROUND: Timor-Leste suffered a destructive withdrawal by the Indonesian military in 1999, leaving only 20 Timorese-based doctors and no practising specialists for a population of 700 000 that has now grown to 1.2 million. METHODS: This article assesses the outcomes and impact of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) specialist medical support from 2001 to 2015. Three programmes were designed collaboratively with the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health and Australian Aid. The RACS team began to provide 24/7 resident surgical and anaesthesia services in the capital, Dili, from July 2001. The arrival of the Chinese and Cuban Medical Teams provided a medical workforce, and the Cubans initiated undergraduate medical training for about 1000 nationals both in Cuba and in Timor-Leste, whilst RACS focused on specialist medical training. RESULTS: Australian Aid provided AUD$20 million through three continuous programmes over 15 years. In the first 10 years over 10 000 operations were performed. Initially only 10% of operations were done by trainees but this reached 77% by 2010. Twenty-one nurse anaesthetists were trained in-country, sufficient to cover the needs of each hospital. Seven Timorese doctors gained specialist qualifications (five surgery, one ophthalmology and one anaesthesia) from regional medical schools in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Indonesia and Malaysia. They introduced local specialist and family medicine diploma programmes for the Cuban graduates. CONCLUSIONS: Timor-Leste has developed increasing levels of surgical and anaesthetic self-sufficiency through multi-level collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa'e, and sustained, consistent support from external donors including Australian Aid, Cuba and RACS. Notes In Press Language eng DOI 10.1111/ans.13768 Field of Research 110399 Clinical Sciences not elsewhere classified 1103 Clinical Sciences Socio Economic Objective 920299 Health and Support Services not elsewhere classified HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal ERA Research output type C Journal article Copyright notice ©2016, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30091494 Document type: Journal Article Collection: School of Medicine Related Links Link Description Connect to in press version Go to link with your DU access privileges   Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 24 Feb 2017, 12:58:11 EST Sat, 25 Feb 2017, 04:00:44 EST Sat, 25 Feb 2017, 05:07:31 EST Mon, 06 Mar 2017, 10:10:30 EST Mon, 06 Mar 2017, 10:14:52 EST Mon, 06 Mar 2017, 10:18:49 EST Fri, 21 Apr 2017, 13:51:02 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 6 Abstract Views, 1 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Fri, 24 Feb 2017, 12:58:11 EST

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