AUSTRALIA’S BIG BOOST TO HEALT CARE IN EAST TIMOR

PETER BAXTER -  THE CAMBERRA TIMES – 09 may 2011

AusAID's comprehensive programs are proving very effective

The Australian Agency for International Development has been working hand in hand with the Government of East Timor since 1999 to improve the lives of the Timorese people and meet the challenge of getting health services to remote rural areas where the majority of people live.

In the past 12 years, Australia has been one of the largest international donors to the health sector in East Timor, and has contributed $28.7million in support since 2008.

However, readers of Professor George Quinn's article on Cuban support for medical training to East Timor (''Cuba shows way with health aid in East Timor'', April 29, p15) would not have received an accurate picture of Australia's support for health services in East Timor, and it is important to set the record straight.

Contrary to the impression conveyed by Quinn's comparison of Australian and Cuban medical support, the Australian Government provides much more than just surgical services and strategic planning support for health in East Timor. AusAID's health programs are far more comprehensive and targeted than this.

AusAID's support is helping an increasing number of Timorese to see skilled health workers more often. We support mobile clinics that visit more than 450 villages each month to provide pre- and post-pregnancy care for women and babies, family planning services, and prevention and treatment of common diseases.

Before these mobile clinics were established, some patients had a four-hour round trip to their nearest health clinic and when they arrived there were often no staff in attendance nor medications available. Things have now changed for the better, with more than a quarter of the Timorese people receiving help from these clinics each year since 2007.

Australia has provided East Timor with 95 overseas scholarships in medicine and health administration, as well as surgical specialities. We have trained a fifth of East Timor's midwives. We have constructed community health posts and procured medical equipment, including emergency obstetric equipment for 32 new maternal health clinics.

In 2010, Australia helped 33,000 people access family planning services and it's estimated that this helped prevent 340 infant deaths, 425 deaths of children under five and the deaths of at least 17 mothers. We have restored the eyesight of more than 1350 people through cataract surgery and increased the rate of children immunised against measles by more than 25 per cent.

While Quinn acknowledged that the approaches of Australia and Cuba to medical training in East Timor are complementary, he failed to report that this division of health-care responsibility between Australia and Cuba has been requested by the Government of East Timor, and is based on each country's strengths.

For example, while Cuba provides and trains general practitioners, Australia supports and trains surgeons and anaesthetists to undertake operations which general practitioners are not able to perform.

As well as this, short-term visiting Australian doctors funded by the Australian aid program work alongside East Timorese doctors. Since 2001, Australian doctors have examined and treated more than 42,500 people and performed more than 8000 life-changing surgical procedures.

While Quinn chastised Australian doctors for being unwilling to work in remote areas of East Timor, it is a fact that all of the surgical procedures by short-term visiting Australian doctors have been delivered on a pro bono basis, with 70 per cent of surgical procedures undertaken in 2010 conducted outside of Dili. AusAID also funds a dedicated team of doctors, including Australians, based in Dili ensuring life-saving surgery is accessible year-round.

Finally, his despondent view of the decline of Australian ''daring, do-it-yourself pioneer spirit'' is entirely misguided. Every year hundreds of Australian volunteers (including young doctors and other health professionals) are funded by AusAID, state governments, local councils and community groups in Australia to offer their services throughout East Timor. They live in local houses, share meals with Timorese colleagues, and speak the local language. And together they make a huge difference.

Improving the health of East Timor's poorest people is of the highest priority to the Government of East Timor and the Australian aid program. AusAID will continue to work closely with the Government of East Timor and other development partners to meet the needs of the East Timorese people.

Interested readers can visit the AusAID website (www.ausaid.gov.au) themselves for more information on Australia's health program in East Timor.

**Peter Baxter is director general of AusAID.