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More Overseas Surgeons to Come to Samoa

Written by Astrid Sesega
Sunday, 13 January 2008
The Ministry of Health and the Samoa National Health Services (NHS) is looking at bringing over specialists from overseas to Samoa for surgeries rather than sending patients to New Zealand, says General Manager of the NHS, Dr. Stanley Dean. According to Dr. Dean it is much less expensive for both the Government of Samoa and the families of the patients. Last year when the team of Heart Surgeons came to Samoa to perform ten Open Heart Surgeries the cost to the Government of Samoa was the same amount it would cost to transfer one or two patients overseas, explained Dr. Dean. “The surgeons volunteer their time,” said Dr. Dean, “We pay for their airfares and accommodation while they are here which comes to about the same cost as sending one to two patients to New Zealand.” Dr. Dean says that if there are ten or more patients needing the same treatment overseas he will ask the Government if instead they can bring specialists over to Samoa. Newsline Newspaper Catch up with News. Grab a Newsline today. Only $2 tala. Available at all leading retail stores. “If there become many patients needing the same treatment we will ask them [the specialists] to come here.” It would have roughly cost SAT$500,000 to send those ten Heart Surgery patients to New Zealand. This will also make it cheaper for the families of the patients as they will not have to spend money flying overseas to be by their loved ones side during post operation care. The team will be coming again this year and Dr. Dean hopes they will be able to operate on 18 patients this time round. The cost of heart surgery in New Zealand is also on the rise, informed Dr. Dean. “It is increasing by about 15% every year.” And with Rheumatic Fever on the rise in Samoa it is going to become more expensive for the Government to send all of the patients overseas for treatment Rheumatic Heart Disease is currently the most common reason Samoan’s are sent overseas for treatment however, Dr. Dean did not have the exact figures of the number of people who were sent overseas in 2007 by the Ministry of Health and Samoan Government. “We are currently compiling a report for Cabinet with those figures,” he said. The current budget for overseas for the 2007/2008 period is SAT$8 million which is a SAT$3 million increase from the 2006/2007 budget. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment
Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 January 2008 )

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