St. Damian Hospital
Some of us visited St. Damian hospital in Cancar outside Ruteng, the capital of West Mangarrai. There are six permanent employed nurses and physiotherapists. There are no doctors in the hospital, if needed they come from the public regional hospital in Ruteng. Since 1995 they cooperate with an Australian organisation, OSSAA (Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia).
OSSAA has been focusing on reconstructive and rehabilitation surgical service in Eastern Indonesia and East Timor since the early 1990s. Twice a year a team of doctors come to St. Damian to perform surgeries for seven days. Their main priority is children, and they perform about 60 reconstructive operations each time their visits.
The St. Damian rehabilitation programme is vital in this process. The programme consists of several steps for the patient rehabilitation, starting with physical therapy and prosthesis if needed. The patients than go through training and are offered to work in the hospital workshop as a form of payment. It is difficult for handicapped people to find work and function in Indonesia, and therefore the hospital offers this programme of alternative handcraft education for their patients.
Universitetet i Agderpostmottak@uia.no
Telefon: +47 38 14 10 00 Fax: +47 38 14 10 01
