BY TARINA WHITE
THE CAIRNS POST
A LONG-TIME MAREEBA (NORTH QUEENSLAND) DOCTOR has sold her general practice to fulfil a lifelong dream to volunteer her medical expertise in isolated and impoverished regions of Papua New Guinea.
Dr Merrilee Frankish has started a six-month volunteer assignment in PNG with the medical aid organisation Australian Doctors International.
Dr Frankish worked in PNG as a medical student 30 years ago and saw first-hand the nation that has the worst state of health in the Pacific region, ranking lower than Bangladesh and Kenya on the UN’s Human Development Index.
She vowed to return one day to offer her medical skills.
With her youngest child starting university this month, Dr Frankish decided the time was right to return to PNG to help raise the level of health care.
"PNG is Australia’s nearest and poorest neighbour. All my life’s work seems directed towards this choice," said Dr Frankish, whose medical qualifications include public health, tropical medicine, obstetrics and surgery.
Malaria affects more than 44% of people and TB and leprosy are also widespread, but they can be eliminated with drugs and regular care, she said. "It’s very sad that people don’t have the opportunities that we have in Australia."
Dr Frankish will work in New Ireland Province, home to 160,000 people with just seven doctors, all based at the provincial hospital in Kavieng.
Dr Frankish will work with a team of provincial and district health staff who specialise in dentistry, community health education, disease control, and water and sanitation.
She will travel to outlying health centres to treat patients – many of whom have never received a doctor’s visit – and train rural health workers.
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