West Timor is a western province of Indonesia. The Flinders Overseas Health Group (FOHG) is a not-for-profit organisation that has supported medical services in West Timor for over a decade. Recently, FOHG initiated efforts to develop cancer services at the Johannes Hospital in Kupang, the capital city of West Timor. The program involved training and supporting medical and nursing staff of the Johannes Hospital through sponsored training programs conducted at the Flinders Medical Centre. In 2015 and 2017, medical oncology, nursing and pharmacy representatives of FOHG traveled in West Timor. Local services were evaluated and areas of need were identified. Prioritisation of resources were considered, and sustainable system changes were recommend and supported. The promote change, FOHG advocated on issues of policy and process through hospital administration and local government. FOHG representatives also met with the Governor of West Timor in an effort to support the commencement of radiotherapy services in the region.
The initiatives of FOHG have promoted the following cancer service changes and improvements at the Johannes Hospital in West Timor;
- reorganisation of ward structure, creating palliative care area
- developing ordering system for chemotherapy drugs (communication between day unit and pharmacy)
- organised patient chemotherapy times in the day infusion centre, matching established ‘cyclical’ protocols.
- developing pharmacy impress and ordering system
- commencing multidisciplinary team meetings for case discussion
- supplying pathology diagnostic equipment
- training in transfusion medicine
- biomedical hazardous waste removal
A guide to optimising medical oncology services in under-resourced regions is being developed by FOHG.