Across the Asia Pacific, local surgeons are growing in expertise with long-term Interplast support.In Papua New Guinea, we have been working with Dr. John Maihua for almost 15 years, supporting his ongoing training and professional development.
When our teams first met Dr. Maihua, he was a trainee in PNG’s plastics program. Now he is the only fully qualified plastic surgeon in PNG, serving a population of 7.6 million people.
Across the Asia Pacific, local surgeons are growing in expertise with long-term Interplast support.
In Papua New Guinea, we have been working with Dr John Maihua for almost 15 years, supporting his ongoing training and professional development. When our teams first met Dr Maihua, he was a trainee in PNG’s plastics program. Now he is the only fully qualified plastic surgeon in PNG, serving a population of 7.6 million people.
Dr Maihua is based in Madang in the country’s north-east where he runs a plastics and hand surgery clinic, but he is in high demand across the country, visiting other centres such as Mt Hagen and Lae to support general surgeons with their cases.
Since 2012, Interplast has been sending a regular team to Madang to support Dr Maihua with his complex plastics cases, with a particular focus on teaching and mentoring in hand surgery. A regular team member, Dr Peter Maloney, has seen great growth in Dr Maihua’s skills, and indeed those of his team, in the six years that he has been visiting Madang.
“Over the years his skills have improved immeasurably, and he has driven the set-up of what is now a very good plastic surgery unit at the Modilon Hospital,” said Dr. Moloney.
Dr. Maihua has big hopes for plastic surgery in PNG. “One day I would like to see a plastic surgeon in all the main regions of PNG,” he said. “Each of them could specialise in a particular area of plastics, as well as having the general skills, and we could support each other with our caseloads.”
Interplast is working hard to help Dr. Maihua and all of our partners in PNG to achieve this goal. It’s a wonderful example of the ways that we invest in training and mentoring for surgeons and other medical professionals in all our program countries.