Solomon Islands

Performing emergency eye surgery based on instructions from ageing text books was part of the routine for Dr Mundi Qalo when he was working in the Gizo Provincial Hospital during the Solomon Islands' crisis earlier this decade.

"The crisis was the busiest time of my life. Honiara was not safe for people from the Western Province or Guadalcanal, so many fled to Gizo. When the Johns (John Szetu and John Hue, ophthalmologists at the National Referral Hospital) left, sometimes I would be called to perform emergency surgery on eyes, which I would do from books," says Dr Qalo.

Undertaking everything from obstetrics to general surgery during his early years as a surgeon, Dr Qalo gradually built his experience in ophthalmology by joining Dr Szetu's regular visits to the Solomons and also the visiting teams of foreign eye doctors whenever they toured the Solomon Islands.

The visiting teams encouraged Dr Qalo to take an ophthalmology scholarship, and at the end of 2005 he completed his postgraduate diploma initially in Port Moresby, then under what he describes as "the watchful eye" of Dr John Szetu, a registered supervisor for the University of Papua New Guinea's School of Medicine, in his Vanuatu clinic when Dr Szetu was supervising The Fred Hollows Foundation's Vanuatu eye program.

Studying abroad presented its own challenges for Dr Qalo - mostly because it meant being separated from his young family, which stayed at home in the Choiseul province in the Solomon Islands.

During his six months of practical placement in Vanuatu, Mundi spent most of his time travelling to remote health clinics on "outreach" tours. He conducted about nine tours of the provinces in Vanuatu in his few months with Dr Szetu.

"I travelled more in Vanuatu than some locals would in their lifetime. I missed my wife and children, but luckily John and his family are like family to me, and Vanuatu's culture and language are similar to the Solomons.

"Conducting surgery in a provincial setting is challenging - we had to carry in our equipment. To sterilise equipment we had to use fire to heat up the autoclave, because there was no electricity or gas. And still we do surgery in these places. If we can do that in Vanuatu, we can do it anywhere".

"The only way to improve services to Pacific people is to go into the rural areas, because not all the population can get to the base hospitals," says Dr Qalo.

In 2007 Mundi started his Masters in Ophthalmology at the Pacific Eye Institute in Fiji.  This intensely practical course will equip Mundi to work as a comprehensive ophthalmologist, performing not just cataract surgery on outreach but competent in diagnosing all causes of blindness and impaired vision.  He hopes to return to the Solomon Islands in 2008 to become his country's only fully qualified resident ophthalmologist.

"I intend training others, because the population of 500,000 in the Solomons needs at least another four eye doctors, and 20 nurses.  My great hope is to bring sight to my people," says Dr Qalo.