In April, I had the privilege of joining the Orthopaedic Outreach trip to Fiji again, this time to Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva. The team included hand surgeons, hand therapists, anesthetists, sonographers, and physiotherapy students.

In the hospital, the hand therapists worked alongside local physiotherapists from Suva and some from Lautoka and Ba, who traveled over for the week to receive hand therapy training. We saw a wide range of conditions, including tendon repairs, fractures, overuse injuries, arthritis, and nerve compression.

The team also ran workshops at Fiji National University for medical and physiotherapy students. These included sessions on wound management, suturing, sporting injuries, and plastering.

Hand therapy donations, including splints, thermoplastic, and casting/plaster materials, were used to treat patients in the hospital, and the remainder was split between the university and hospitals at the end of the week.

One main aim of the trip was to demonstrate how good collaboration and communication between these disciplines facilitate good patient outcomes and how much you can learn from each other. I certainly returned home grateful for all the fresh knowledge, insight, and perspectives that I gained from both the local and outreach team members.