Niue is a unique Pacific nation, consisting of a single coral island, which is home to about 1500 people, with many more Niueans living in New Zealand and Australia.
While Niueans are New Zealand citizens, the cost of flying patients to Auckland for health care is high, so teams from various specialties visit from Auckland, often on a yearly basis.
Myself and my Auckland-based colleague, Dr Sarah Welch, have been visiting Niue since 2009 and over recent years the team has grown to include retinal screener, Raina Tutini, as there are now more than 300 diabetics on the island, and optometrist, Deborah Chan.
This year’s visit was once again a very successful and enjoyable volunteer trip, which had the added excitement of introducing small incision phacoemulsification cataract surgery to the island for the first time. This was achieved thanks to the generous donation of a quality operating microscope from Zeiss and a phacoemulsification ultrasound machine from Alcon. Experienced ophthalmic theatre nurse, Crystal Siva, also joined the team for the first time to ensure the operating ran smoothly.
There were some initial challenges, particularly with the operating microscope, which required some urgent advice from New Zealand-based Zeiss engineer, Andre Smith, plus the skills of a local electrician to get it working. The hospital autoclaves also struggled to keep pace with the surgery, as there were only three sets of surgical instruments. But it all came together well in the end and the team were able to see several hundred patients and undertake 34 cataract operations.
