Making a difference with ultrasound in PNG

In late September 2012, I travelled from Sydney to the small village of Valoka in West New Britain province of Papua New Guinea to set up an ultrasound service there. In early 2011 I had replied to a post on the ASA website from the Kimbe Assistance project, who are supplying much-needed equipment and consumables to the small rural clinic on the west coast island province of New Britain. A Philips HDI 5000 ultrasound machine had been donated by a doctor in Melbourne, but the nurses who had previously been doing ultrasound on an antiquated, and since broken-down machine, were unfamiliar with this machine. Unfortunately, the machine – which had been on the Port Moresby dock in the searing heat for some weeks, and had been “tipped over” in transit – would not work. A few months later another Philips HDI 5000 ultrasound machine was donated, which was serviced, and packed by Philips engineers for the safest possible Making a difference with ultrasound in PNG