No products in the cart.

Uncategorized

Master of Medicine in O&G, Fiji National University (FNU) 2017

A/Prof Pushpa Nusair of FNU reports on those who recently graduated with Masters and research topics:
1)Ailsa T.Benati (Kiribati)- Research project –A Retrospective audit of trial of Labour after Caesarean Section (TOLAC) cases at Lautoka Hospital (1st January 2015-31st December 2016)
2) Mairini Rokovunisei (Fiji)-Retrospective Audit of Antenatal Care of Syphilis in Pregnancy at Colonial War Memorial Hospital (January 2015 to January 2017)
3) Nitik Ram-Post Caesarean Section wound Infection at Colonial War Memorial  Hospital ,Suva ,Fiji (1st January 2016 to 31st December 2016). RANZCOG Best Student.
4) Byron Fatiaki-Retrospective Audit of Pregnancy complicated by Intrauterine Growth Restriction diagnosed at Lautoka Hospital from January 1st 2016 to December 31st 2016
5) Viliame Mataitolu –Outcomes of Women with Hypertension in Pregnancy at Labasa Hospital (1st March 2016 to 28th February 2017)

News

PSRH Research Awards

PSRH offers ten Research Awards per annum to assist research capacity building in reproductive health in the Pacific region. Each award is to the value of NZ$500 and can be used to develop a larger research proposal or for paying expenses in performing a clinical audit. Where the awards are over-subscribed, priority will be given to projects that have part-funding from another source.
The criteria are:

  1. The Principal Investigator (PI) is a financial member of PSRH
  2. The PI has ready access to the internet and a computer
  3. The project addresses a priority area/service
  4. Have the support of the Head of Unit/Ward/Service/Hospital
  5. Sound research/audit application and methods
  6. A research team (2-7 members) will perform the project with one member having performed research before
  7. Take no more than two years to complete
  8. Findings to be published in the Pacific Journal of Reproductive Health
  9. The application must be typed with referencing where appropriate

Applications on the linked form close 30th March 2018.
 

Stories

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls, 25 Nov

Every year, there is global advocacy on ending violence against women; 25th November is recognized as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls. This day also kicks start the “16 Days of Activism” against Gender-Based Violence up to 10 December, which is globally recognized as “Human Rights Day”.
The 16 Days of Activism provide an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of GBV as a gender and health priority issue. WHO launched a new manual for health managers and policy-makers to strengthen health systems to deliver better quality of care to women who are subjected to violence, “Strengthening health systems to respond to women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence: A manual for health managers.
Additional information, including existing resources and materials can also be found at:

 

News

RANZCOG Scholarships 2018

Pacific Associate Members are invited to apply for the following scholarships offered to Associate Members participating in the RANZCOG Pacific CPD.

  • CPD Program ASM Scholarship 2018 to be held in Adelaide, 15-19 September 2018
  • Brian Spurrett Fellowship to attend the Anatomy of Complication Workshop, Perth, 19-20 October 2018

Applications close 31 January 2018.
For more information contact Ms Carmel Walker on email:  cwalker@ranzcog.edu.au

News

Tonga Medical Association celebrates its 75th Anniversary  

The Tonga Medical Association recently held its 75th annual conference. The conference took place at the Fa’onelua Convention Centre in the Kingdom’s capital of Nuku’alofa during 7-10th November, 2017. Her Royal Highness, Princess Salote Pilolevu Tuita, the patron of the Association officially opened the Conference.
The event was of special significance as it commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Society, an important milestone in the life of the organization. The theme of the conference was “Honouring the Past, Treasuring the Present, and Shaping the Future: Innovations & Strategies for Success”. The theme was selected to acknowledge the major achievements of the Society and to continue honouring its noble profession in shaping the health landscape in Tonga. It was a time to reflect on the development of the medical profession in Tonga; to acknowledge the contribution made by medical pioneers in steering the course of medicine to where it is today; to celebrate our collective efforts and successes; to strengthen our health systems and finding effective ways for improved health outcomes for the people of Tonga.
 
More than 150 health professionals attended including Tongans who have migrated overseas.  Delegates consisted of local doctors, Tongan doctors working overseas in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji; and representatives from regional organizations including the Pacific Community, Pasifika Medical Association and the World Health Organization (Fiji).
 
Dr Ma’ake Tupou as the Head of O & G Unit at the Ministry of Health made a presentation on “Diabetes in Pregnancy – the Tonga Experience”.  Pregnancy is an opportunity to deliver interventions that can shape the future of women and families. He highlighted the importance of optimizing maternal health throughout the life course – from preconception and throughout pregnancy. This underlined the need for multisectoral approaches engaging communities, public health teams and clinicians. Effective family planning has a role to play in improving maternal health. Early booking should be encouraged. Establishing universal screening for diabetes in Tonga is well underway and a project for improved gestational diabetes care in Tonga has been approved by the World Diabetes Federation. This project will engage more interventions and other opportunities for improved health outcomes – working on optimizing the existing health system and expanding services in rural health facilities to decentralize health care.
 
What messages emanated from the conference
The Tonga Medical Association has indeed contributed significantly to the development of the Ministry of Health by building the professional network of doctors and enhancing their professional development. The discussions concluded that collaborations and effective partnership with other stakeholders are necessary to make rapid progress in health. Many interventions are outside of the health profession and there is a need for multi-sectoral approaches with effective coordination, management and good governance for transparency and accountability.  While Tonga has made excellent progress in achieving good health outcomes and a strong workforce in the Pacific, the conditions of employment including remuneration remain an issue among health professionals.
 
The key resolutions from the Conference included:

  1. That Tonga Medical Association committee should guide and support the implementation of specific recommendations identified during the conference.
  2. That Tonga Medical Association in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to review human resources strategies to improve health workforce development, including retention of doctors.
  3. That Tonga Medical Association optimizes the health information system for quality data collection, generation of health information that informs management and policy makers.

The Tonga Medical Association elected its new Committee which comprises of the following members:
Executive committee 2017/2019
President:                                 Reynold ‘Ofanoa
Vice President:                        Veisinia Matoto
Treasurer:                                Pafilio Tangitau
A/ Treasurer:                          Mele Pomale
Secretary:                                 Selelsia Fifita
A/secretary:                            Alamea Aholelei
Junior rep:                                Marina Tu’inukuafe
Members:                                 ‘Ofa Tukia and Seventeen Toumoua

Blog

Contraception in Counties Manukau Health, District Health Board, Auckland, NZ

 
Dr Susan Tutty
GP Liaison for Women’s Health, Counties Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand
Counties Manukau is responsible for providing women’s health services in the Counties Manuka District Health Board boundary. It covers a population of over half a million and has one of the largest populations of Maaori, Pacific Islanders and Asian communities with relatively rapid population growth and high socio-economic deprived status. Therefore family planning is an essential service for these communities.
Improving access to contraception was highlighted as an important intervention in women’s health, and recommended in perinatal mortality meetings. Despite this, there is little data on women accessing contraception of their choice in Counties Manukau.
In an attempt to estimate planned pregnancy rates, an audit of folic acid use prior to pregnancy was undertaken. It found that only 5% of mothers start folic acid prior to pregnancy. Contraceptive data taken from pharmacies in 2015 suggested that approximately 20% of women in Counties Manukau use some form of contraception, but of that 20% only 8% use long acting reversible contraception (LARC). LARC is now considered first line contraception for all women but its uptake is still low. The Beach Study found that if women seeking contraception were given free access to the contraception of their choice, with no barriers, 67% of women would prefer a LARC.
Unplanned pregnancy: In a survey conducted at Middlemore Hospital, 54% of women reported that their pregnancies were unplanned: 62% of Pacifika women and 88% of Maaori women. Of the 16 women in the survey who were under 21, all of them had not planned their pregnancy. This demonstrates the “unmet need for family planning” and suggests inequities in access to contraception with particular disadvantages for Maaori and Pacifika women and young people.
The effect of poverty: Over half of all births in New Zealand in 2015 were to women living in quintile 4 or 5 neighbourhoods. Maori and Pacifika women are clustered in quintile 4 and 5 as shown in the table below.
 
Thirty seven percent of New Zealand’s Pacific Island people live in Counties Manukau and 76% of the Pacific Islanders of them live in the most socio-economically deprived areas in New Zealand. Pacifika women make up the largest proportion of births (30.6%) at Counties Manukau Health.
The women’s story: The stories of our women, collected from focus groups and freely shared in situations where LARCs are being made available, are incredibly moving and suggest there is a huge unmet need for contraception and for LARCs. Anecdotally, one of our midwives who agreed to help with the insertions of Jadelle on the post-natal ward has become a very strong advocate for LARCs after experiencing the appreciation and relief expressed by women who have received this service.
About LARCs
LARCs are described as “fit-and-forget contraception”, as their failure rate is not user-dependent, which makes them very suitable for the young and for women with busy and complex lives. Once Jadelle is removed the woman returns rapidly to fertility; ideal for spacing children and also for family completion. Jadelle have only been available in New Zealand since August 2010. Not all GPs are confident or skilled in the insertion of LARCs which may influence the options they present to women.
 
Postnatal Contraception
The provision of contraception to women whilst on the post-natal ward is the most cost-effective and convenient service delivery model. However, it is difficult to provide a service to reach all women. Currently, here is only a very limited number of staff doing Jadelle insertions on the postnatal ward with no service on weekends or outside normal working hours. Postnatal tubal ligations are occasionally performed on high needs women but frequently cannot be done due to pressures on theatre time. Immediate postpartum IUDs are currently not being inserted in Counties Manukau.
To accommodate the growing number of women requesting postnatal LARC insertions funding has been made available to primary care facilities for these insertions.  Whilst this is providing a more timely service than the previous referral to a secondary care clinic, there is concern over the high DNA rate of these new mums who already have to manage a new baby in a high needs area.
 
Vasectomy
Counties Manukau Health funds a vasectomy service for partners of post-natal women within 6 months of birth; services for women requesting termination and those requesting tubal ligation. Funding based on other criteria including family size has recently been withdrawn. This funding has provided vasectomies to men from high deprivation areas twice as often as men from low deprivation areas, but the numbers of Maaori or Pacifika men receiving this service are still relatively low.
 
Health Equity Project
Ko Awatea and CM Health have initiated a Health Equity campaign with the vision of reducing health disparities experienced by Maaori and Pacific communities by December 2020.  Women in high deprivation areas, Maaori and Pacific women need to be offered appropriate contraception. This project has removed barriers related to the cost of LARC insertions for women in Otara and is working on understanding other barriers within the GP practices, and build on women’s awareness or experience of LARCs.
A model for change has been introduced as illustrated by the following figure which highlights some of the change ideas being explored.
 
The future
At a recent focus group discussion with Maaori and Pacifika women who had recently given birth, the women surprised us by saying, “why are you working with doctors and the nurses, let us know what is there for us.” This is a challenge to go out into the community; to discuss, to challenge and inform women.  The social, economic and health benefits of LARCs have been clearly documented; these should be recognised politically, and funded nationally. Our women, and particularly our Pacifika women, are missing out on appropriate contraception and resulting in many unplanned pregnancies. It is inequitable and unjust.  All women should be informed about contraception, and have timely access to the contraception of their choice. Planned pregnancy provides the opportunity to optimise healthcare and address issues prior to pregnancy; and to give babies the best possible start in life.
 

Blog

Understanding the unmet need for family planning

(Dr Rufina Latu, WHO Country Office, Port Moresby and a/Prof Pushpa Nusair, Fiji National University)
 The benefits of effective contraception have been well documented and family planning is widely promoted in the last 40 years as an essential intervention for improved maternal health. Studies show that investment in family planning incurs far-reaching health and economic gains at individual, community and national levels. However, despite global movements to step up the family planning agenda and increase access to service, contraceptive use is still low among Pacific island countries.
The concept of unmet need for family planning is not well understood by many service providers. It is defined as the proportions of women of reproductive age, either married or fecund (productive), who desire to delay childbearing or wish to stop having further children, but are not using an effective method of contraception. An unmet need points to the gap between a woman’s child-bearing intentions and contraceptive use.
Quite often, a health worker sees cases of unmet need. For instance, a mother becomes pregnant again when her baby is only six months old – this demonstrates an unmet need; similarly, when a 17-year-old student becomes pregnant; a 36 year-old mother enters her 7th pregnancy; or a 44 year-old mother becomes pregnant again ten years after her last delivery. We are too familiar with these kinds of cases of unmet need and yet we don’t put enough emphasis and actions to prevent them.
The level of unmet need for contraception remains high. Today, 214 million women in developing countries globally want to avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern method of contraception. This number has dropped by 10m during the last three years due to global movements in family planning. Among Pacific island countries, the unmet need ranges from 20% to as high as 50%.  Various studies show that nearly half of women attending antenatal clinics had not intended to get pregnant.
The unmet need is especially high among particular groups such as adolescents, single mothers, urban settlement dwellers, refugees, older women with many children, women in the postpartum period, and those living in remote communities with poor access to health services.
The reasons for not using contraception can be a combination of various factors, including: not knowing about contraception, a perceived low risk of getting pregnant, lack of motivation, limited access to contraception inconvenience in seeking and receiving services, concerns about side-effects, cultural or religious opposition, providers’ bias and attitudes, gender-based barriers, cost to users, and concerns about social acceptability especially among young and/or unmarried people. For decades we continue to live with this list of familiar reasons, and unfortunately, there is a general tendency to accept them as the norm without finding practical solutions to address them. Consequently, the unmet need for family planning propagates among communities, resulting in more unplanned pregnancies, and subjecting more women and families to various levels of disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances and hardships.
It is a social responsibility for couples to plan the desired number of children they wish to have, and to determine the spacing between them. It is also a human right for a woman to choose if and when to become pregnant. Family planning has a direct impact on securing the well-being and autonomy of women, and has far-reaching benefits on the health and development of families and communities.
Family planning allows delaying pregnancies, spacing of pregnancies, and completing the size of families at the desired time. Evidence suggests that women who have more than 4 children are at more risk of life threatening maternal complications than those with fewer children. This also holds true for pregnancies among younger women under age 18 and those with short birthing intervals of less than two years.
The vicious cycle of events contributing to unmet need for family planning has to be interrupted if we are to gain the full health and socio-economic benefits of contraception. This involves taking pragmatic steps to get non-users to become dedicated contraceptive users. Effective contraception must be an essential part of basic healthy living.
The message is clear – we need to reduce the unmet needs for family planning. The unmet need declines as more non-users become users.  Women and their partners should be empowered to use effective contraception. We need to return to basics – make family planning simple, practical and essential, provide client-friendly services, remove unnecessary barriers, and make every contact with health care a golden opportunity to talk about contraceptive needs.

News

Recommendations Post Conference

Recommendation 1
Establish a Comprehensive Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Programme

  • Cervical Cancer is the most common female cancer in the Pacific, contributing to disease burden and causing more than 1,500 premature deaths per year in the region. These deaths can be prevented if pre-cancer status is detected and treated early. Primary and secondary prevention that are effective and practical for Pacific island settings should be pursued.
  • The Society made strong commitments to develop a Pacific-oriented guideline on Comprehensive Cervical Cancer Prevention to help countries address this problem. PSRH will embark on collaborating with governments and key partners in the region to pursue this agenda.
  • A multi-country Technical Working Group on Cervical Cancer Prevention will be coordinated by PSRH to oversee the development of this programme and facilitate its progress.

 
Recommendation 2
Support Health Workforce Development in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

  • The shortage of health workforce in midwifery and obstetrics is a long-standing problem in the Pacific and affects the quality of service delivery in maternal-newborn care. The issue needs to be positioned high in the agenda of development and in the discussions among governments and development partners.
  • PSRH is well-positioned to engage in advocacy dialogue with donors and development partners to leverage resources and sponsorship for strengthening health institutions (midwifery schools, Fiji National University and UPNG) to produce adequate health workforce for the region.

 
Recommendation 3
Strengthen the Capacity of Midwifery Training Institutions to produce increased numbers of Midwives to meet national targets
3.1 Shortage of midwives has been a long-standing problem that hinder the provision of essential maternal-newborn care at all levels of the health care system. Increasing the numbers of midwives to fill in the large numbers of vacancies is critical to make progress in quality of care especially at primary care level.
3.2 The Midwifery segment of PSRH Board will work with governments and development partners to reassess the situation in the Pacific and develop strategic plans that are practical and affordable in addressing the issues.
Recommendation 4
Increase Contraceptive uptake and Reduce the Unmet Need for family planning in the Region
4.1 Family planning is an effective intervention for reducing maternal deaths and should be strongly promoted to couples and individuals as an essential component of essential maternal health package.
4.2 PSRH will collaborate with countries, donors and development partners on innovative ways to reach more people with effective contraception, with a focus on long-acting methods of contraception.
 
Other important Recommendations
In addition to the above, the conference discussed other recommendations relevant to the needs of the region. The PSRH Secretariat will endeavor to mobilise partnerships with relevant institutions to partner in these areas. These include:

  1. Mainstream the prevention of gender-based violence as part of existing services for women and children. More specifically, screening for GBV using simple practical screening tools can be introduced in clinical settings at all levels of the health care system.
  2. Strengthen the practice of functional and effective maternal death reviews as an effective intervention for improving quality of care. PSRH can work with other partners to expand the application of standard methods and templates that can be modified, as appropriate.
  3. Explore the establishment of a “surgical skills laboratory” at the two main medical training institutions – Fiji National University and University of Papua New Guinea. The aim is to ensure that graduating doctors are well skilled in conducting operations and perineal repairs.
  4. Work in partnership with Ministries of Education in selected countries to support the development of a position statement on the need to incorporate Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Education as a compulsory subject in the school system.