Meeting Report 20th August 2019
Chair: John Ilott. Reporter: Tony Thomas
Guest: David Lawrie (applied for membership).
Female members present: Anne King, Rebecca John. (Each won raffle prizes which seemed supernatural).
Announcements:
# Gerard Hogan requests bottles of wine donations for our raffle.
# Rebecca John reported Bernie Gerlinger is progressing with immunotherapy and the couple are settling well into the Gold Coast. Among recent visitors were our ex-member Richard Bowen and Wendy.
Doug and Pam Robertson are back from their Port Douglas jaunt.
Yanpu Zhang is recovering well, updating us on her progress and looking forward to returning to our meetings
# Frank O’Brien sought helpers for a Bunnings sausage sizzle at Collingwood Sat. 24 August.
# President Warwick mentioned birthdays for Geoff Fairhall and Janet Cardell, and six-year club anniversary for Stuart Ellis.
He congratulated Alan Seale on success with a Rotary Foundation Grant.
On End-Polio he said unfortunately the 33 new cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan had now increased to 56. Administration of vaccines is being hindered there by insecurities. Good news is that Nigeria has had no cases for three years. The whole of Africa could soon be deemed polio free. On Thursday October 19 there will be a polio walk 5km around Albert Lake. Our four Rotary Districts are invited.
Our members are also invited to the Melbourne Rotary Thomas Baker Oration, Wednesday September 4, 12.30 Fitzroy Ballroom, Sofitel. The speaker is David Thodey AO, Chairman of CSIRO.
Guest Speaker: Anthony Wall, operations manager (policy, safety and quality) of ANZ College of Anaesthetists.
Introducing Anthony, John Ilott said RCM and the college were combining for a scoping study, with 50% Rotary Foundation funding, for PNG mentoring in anaesthesia and pain management.
Anthony said every day 17,000 Australians go under anaesthetics. He traced the historic landmarks of anaesthesia since dentistry in 1846. ANZCA has 7,500 specialists but globally health workers are in short supply. The current WHO estimated shortage of 7.2m will increase to 13m by 2035.
PNG population with its poor health services already, will rise from 8m to 13m by 2030. Currently 80% is rural and PNG ranks only 157th of 185 countries on the development index. Per capita health spending is only $77 compared with $5000 here. It has 45 anaesthetists compared with Australia’s 5,500, and has poor working conditions and low training development.
ANZCA has a multi-year vocational training project to improve conditions and generate self-training, focused on Mt Hagen/Goroka in the highlands, with its 1m population. Two to four visits a year are planned annually to build local capacity. The combined ANZCA/Rotary spending will be $120,000 over three years plus of course the valuable donation of ANZCA members’ time. #
.PNG)
David Laurie & Warwick Cavell
