What is your usual role in Australia, and how did you come to work with MSF?
As a doctor in Australia I've spent time working in Melbourne, Geelong and Alice Springs. I’ve been training with the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine since 2017, with the goal of working as an emergency department physician.
I spent some time during my undergraduate medical degree studying in Malaysia, which contributed to an interest in working overseas. I’m intrigued by different health systems and ways of delivering healthcare, and with healthcare delivery in rural contexts. When it came to considering the organisation to work with, it was MSF’s principles—neutrality, impartiality and independence—that made MSF stand out. The benefits those principles have for patient care in a health context are important to me.
Your most recent assignment was in Kenema, Sierra Leone. What was that experience like?
I was working in the hospital that MSF supports in Kenema as an emergency room (ER) doctor, in a team of clinicians and nurses. At the time, the project was providing care for children of one month to five years of age. We were treating a lot of patients with malaria, meningitis, malnutrition, pneumonia, tuberculosis, HIV and gastroenteritis. Disease outbreaks and years of civil war have hugely affected the healthcare system in Sierra Leone, and child mortality rates remain high.