Pacific Partnership 08
By SURGCDR John Duncan RNZN
After a very successful RNZN deployment in the USS PELELIU last year, the US Navy extended an invitation for the NZDF to take part in Pacific Partnership 08. This time we were in a large hospital ship and not a grey LPA. There were still the See Bees ashore doing construction work but not to the extent of Partnership 07.
With 12 operating theatres, an large intensive-care unit, wards with up to 1000 beds, a CT scanner , full X-ray, laboratory and huge casualty receiving facilities with forty plus fully equipped resuscitation beds, the MERCY is more capable than a lot of hospitals. The focus was on medicine and surgery, and we were using five theatres.
The MERCY really was a sight to behold. Her primary role is that of a combat support ship, and took part in the first Gulf War, but regularly takes part in the Pacific Partnership and other humanitarian missions. On joining and finding our cabins, the three boys (Colin Joe and I) were in a 112-man mess four decks down, while all the girls were accommodated in the wardroom.
We sailed from Darwin the following morning for Port Moresby. The four day transit to PNG was spent both getting lost and getting to know the US and Partner Nation personnel whom we would be working alongside.
There was a large contingent from the RAN of doctors, nurses, medics and engineers, who on our arrival only a few days after the first tri-nations rugby test, were rather cocky - after only five minutes aboard I heard “Is it too soon to mention the rugby?” in a thick Aussie accent. However soon after there was the Eden Park test where the Wallabies were lucky to come second and the Australians en masse seemed to lose interest in the rugby immediately!
What did we do?
On arrival in PNG, Port Moresby Hospital had organised potential surgical patients. There were queues of people waiting on the wharf and time was spent screening for suitable candidates, screening for TB, then scheduling the surgeries and procedures. A large range of orthopaedic, dental and general surgical cases were performed.
Our three Nursing Officers worked primarily on the wards looking after the post op patients and rehabilitating them to a point where they could be safely discharged back into the community without creating a drain on the local health infrastructure. It did seem to me that they all got more than their fair share of night duties, but there was no moaning and all worked very hard. All three Nursing Officers all got at least one day ashore as part of a Medcap or a teaching session.
FSGT Edie, as an Environmental Health Tech, was kept very busy with the Preventative Medicine team of 18 who were involved with education, teaching sessions ashore, insect vector control and other joys, such as a slaughter house inspection, inspection of toilet facilities at the local schools and a tour of Port Moresby Hospital including the TB laboratory, non-operational incinerators and the Morgue. The Preventative Med team also did tour the local brewery, including sampling of product, but such was the competition for this visit FSGT Edie sadly missed out.
The three Medics and I were involved in the Medcaps; early in the morning we would head ashore in the fibreglass “Band Aid Boats” as they called them, climb into a convoy of minibuses and 4WDs and head off to a clinic site. There were up to four Medcaps scheduled each day, we had clinics at Churches, the Police barracks, town halls and schools.
We would have a collection of GPs, paediatricians, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, medics and support personnel. There was always a queue winding around the block, often people having queued since midnight to be seen. Despite working very hard over a long day with few breaks, I do not think that we ever managed to get the queue down to even close to zero. It was common to have all of a family come to be seen together, for a lot of the patients it was the first time that they had ever seen a doctor.
Dental and Optometry also was very busy and it never ceased to amaze me that there would be young children having injections and dental extractions whilst lying on a school bench, or sitting in a plastic chair with not a whimper or word of complaint. I somehow do not see this happening in NZ!
Port Moresby is a very poor area with high unemployment and poor heath infrastructure with few health resources available for most people, while medications are expensive and difficult to source. I have no doubt that what we managed to achieve in our short time there really will have made a difference to a lot of families in the community.
With Pacific Partnership returning each year we can only build on this, and foster our relationship with the Host Nations and with the US Navy. The welcome that we were given by the local population at each visit was wonderful, they really were extremely appreciative and more that once at the end of a Medcap we were treated to a local feast as a ‘thank you’.
Next year Pacific Partnership 09 will be conducted by another grey hull with the MERCY returning in 2010. The MERCY’s sister ship USNS COMFORT is heading off for a similar mission to South America in 2009. I thoroughly enjoyed Pacific Partnership 07 and 08 deployments and look forward to what Pacific Partnership 2009 has to offer.
Who was who?
The 2008 NZDF team consisted of myself as a GP, LMED Tia Paitai RNZN, SGT Walters RNZAF, LT Casey Pinny & LT Donna Hammond, FSGT Colin Edie RNZAF (Environmental Health) CAPT Jane Webb and LCPL Joe Konlechner NZ Army.
Total on board: 1035
- 54 partner nation personnel from Australia, S Korea, India, Pakistan, Canada & 8 NZDF
- 94 NGO personnel
- (many) US Navy, US Army & US Air Force personnel,
- (not so many) US Public Health personnel
- and one lonely Marine!