Consultant Paediatric and General Surgeon Doctor Jitoko Cama of Waikato Hospital in New Zealand is currently in Fiji to briefly provide voluntary services to patients who need urgent surgeries and to assist general surgeons at CWM Hospital and Fiji National University.
He has been overwhelmed with the number of complex paediatric cases and adult general surgical cases such as diabetic foot surgeries, breast cancer, liver and appendix cases.
Doctor Cama who was a local surgeon joined the Paediatric Surgical Department at Waikato Hospital around 7 years ago.
He has on numerous occasions visited Fiji to perform surgeries mostly on patients with complex paediatric problems.
When asked about his reasons to provide voluntary services in Fiji, Doctor Cama says that he wanted to give something back to the country where he once resided.
He says he is recently on sabbatical leave from Waikato Hospital which was initially intended to be used on furthering his professional expertise in other advanced Paediatric Surgical Units across Australia and New Zealand.
Doctor Cama says the reason why he came was in response to a request from the Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science at FNU, Doctor William May and Professor of Surgery Eddie McCaig to come home and assist the surgical training department in teaching the post‑graduate trainees and to also help in the surgical department.
He says so he thought it would be good to come and give something back to his country.
Doctor Cama says in addition to conducting surgeries, he has also been assisting in training the local medical students and the post graduate surgical trainees who are completing their studies and was pleased to see the capabilities of the students.
He says the presentations from the postgraduate surgical trainees are comparable to or better than some of the advanced paediatric surgical trainees and registrars that he teacher’s in Hamilton.
