Transcript
Eye health has a long history of being an issue with cataracts common and responsible for 80 percent of avoidable blindness in the Pacific.
But the field is under more pressure now with the emergence of diabetes eye disease off the back of a non-communicable disease crisis.
Duke Mataka is the only Ophthamalogist in Tonga, having just graduated from the Pacific Eye Institute in Suva.
Dr Mataka says he became interested in eye care when observing the work a visiting PEI team was doing in the country.
"In one week, they did more than 100 surgeries and I was like, wait, wait, wait, these people stay - I met them everyday, I see them every week and I never knew they were living with blindness. So I guess I was thinking to myself, I guess this is an area where Tonga needs a service to be provided."
Dr Mataka returned to Tonga this year to continue the work.
"To go and start new was really challenging because of the number of patients. There are equipment that haven't been used, equipment that is incomplete, microscopes that are not very clear, consumables that the clinic doesn't have so you have to improvise and use other equipment."
Like Dr Mataka, Rabebe Tekeraoi is the only eye care specialist in her country, Kiribati. She says while she is seeing 30 to 40 people a day at her clinic, there are more people in need in the outer islands.
"Half of the population live and access the eye care resources where I'm based but the other half are divided by ocean so we have to travel across to see them or for them to travel across to see us. It's obviously a problem. It involves a lot of cost."
Basil Aitip is the National Eye Care Co-ordinator in Vanuatu, another country with just one ophthalmologist. He says accessing patients in the provinces is also an issue for them, however another obstacle is having to deal the problems that traditional beliefs can create.
"You can have patients coming in and you tell them 'oh you have this, you have this' but they might think no it's not this. It must be a devil or something and that's when they start going for traditional treatment and healing, and that's when they go to witch doctors and they go and they just go and take anything and then, the next thing that will happen is that it will have an effect on the eye and they will have to come back again."
Mr Aitip says the challenge is to be persuasive but respectful at the same time and to build relationships with the community.
He points to the recent establishment of a National Eye Care Centre in Port Vila, which is dealing with around 400 patients a month, as a good start.
Despite all the challenges, Dr Duke Mataka, says the joy he witnesses when people's sight is restored makes it all worthwhile.
"It's an awesome feeling to have an immediate impact on their life and when you remove the pads the next day and they change from not seeing anything to seeing everything. I guess, I just feel like this is where we should be."
Both Dr Mataka and Dr Rabebe Tekeraoi are hopeful a second Ophthalmologist will arrive to help them in a few years once another set of graduates emerge from the Pacific Eye Institute, currently the only island-based, training facility in the region.
