Interplast continues to pass on plastic surgery skills throughout the Asia Pacific through extensive training programs.
Thanks to the generous support of the Rotary Club of Ryde and the Rotary Club of Apia, in April Interplast delivered a successful surgical skills workshop in Apia, Samoa.
Across all the Pacific Islands there are only a couple of plastic or specialised surgeons, so it is more effective to provide basic plastic surgery skills to general surgeons for use in their regular work.
The 10 surgeons who attended came from countries across the Pacific islands such as Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands. They were joined by three registrars from Samoa.
This was the first time that such a workshop, using live patients, has been delivered in the Pacific islands. Most of those attending were senior surgeons who had previously completed Interplast training in Hobart in 2013 and 2014, and the approach was commended by all involved as a practical and effective way of developing plastic surgical skills in the Pacific Islands.
