Top Surgeon: Diabetes Amputations Pushing Other Surgeries Aside

Diabetes amputations are flooding up surgical theatres and pushing other surgical procedures onto the waiting list.

This was revealed by Colonial War Memorial Hospital chief surgeon Dr Josese Turagava.

He said with one amputation every 12 hours, the surgical staff had been working late into the night and sometimes on a 24-hours basis.

Dr Turagava said the consultations on the National Surgical Obstetrics and Anaesthesia Plan, is a means of addressing this issue where quality surgical procedures are accessible by all.

He said diabetes was a lifestyle disease which could be prevented, but the high occurrence of cases leading to amputations were crowding up surgical theatres pushing other procedures and people on waiting lists.

He said manpower, equipment and infrastructure need changes and review, which the National Plan would hopefully bring about.

“We need to increase the numbers, we have two pediatricians handling babies, we have only one plastic surgeon, we only got three maxillofacial surgeons and one neurologist, the demand for these surgeries are much more,” he said.

“All of these surgeons have to fly in between Lautoka and Labasa to seek out their work.

“The patients for the specialist areas will still have to come to us, the Government should be committed to sustain these numbers in the workforce and sustain the services.”

Dr Turagava said in the next 20 years, the current set of surgeons will not be here. He said he was thankful that the pay issue for such fields was addressed by the Government putting a stop to the exodus of medical professionals.

“As a surgeon, I would like to see a lot of specialised hospitals built in the Suva Nausori corridor, there are too many people,” he said.

“Of all births in Fiji 20 to 30 per cent of women require Cesarean procedures; the diabetes cases still come, we deal with 250 to 300 breast cancer cases.

“Right now, we don’t have the numbers and facility to look after all cases or as many as we would like, hopefully with the Government and partnership with other stakeholders, we can achieve this and that is why the National Plan is so important.”

Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Ifereimem Waqainabete said that was the direction the Ministry of Health was heading into and this can be seen in many major hospitals where the outpatients have been directed to health centres.

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