From the isolation of Makogai

Makogai to the heart of Suva

From a Suva correspondent Once, when a man was sent to the three miles-square island of Makogai, in Fiji’s Lomaiviti Group, it was a sentence of exile. It meant he was a leper— not only diseased, but doomed to isolation.

At its height the hospital at Makogai had 740 patients, all of them leprosy sufferers, all heir to the psychological hell of being cut off from friends and families, all shunned by society.

The wheel has turned full circle now. Makogai’s patients—there are only 70 at present—are back in society, closer to families, only a little way from the heart of Suva.

They are housed in the recently completed P. J. Twomey Memorial Hospital, situated off the main road at Tamavua and almost adjacent to a 90-block housing subdivision which is shaping up to be one of the most exclusive in Fiji, For the right to a 99-year lease to one of these magnificently-sited sub divisions, those who were successful out of some 300 applicants paid an initial $l,OOO.

The point of the exercise seems to be that not only is the leprosy hos pital of today not an object for isolation, but neither is it considered

a hindrance to expensive residential development. Nor should it be.

The hospital, named in honour of the New Zealander who worked tirelessly to better the lot of leprosy sufferers in the South Pacific, was officially opened on November 29 by Dr. C. J. Austin, who served as medical superintendent at Makogai from 1930 to 1953.

Mr. A. S. Geddes, chairman of the New Zealand Lepers’ Trust Board—which distributes $500,000 or so anually—was to have opened the new $254,400 building, but he became ill at the last moment.

Tragically, Mr. Geddes died in hos pital in Suva 10 days later, Tribute was paid to P. J. Twomey —who first began helping leprosy

patients when he raised money fc some New Zealanders who wei being sent to Makogai—by Fiji Minister for Social Services, M Jonate Mavoa. He also spoke of th courage and dedication of doctors an nuns who served on the island thj meant exile for themselves as we as their patients.

The Fiji Government fin established a leprosy hospital at Beq in 1900, but by 1909 it was seen t be unsuitable and the patients wei moved to smaller Makogai, wher isolation was complete, in 1911.

When the present Deputy Directc of Medical Services, Dr. D. M Beckett, arrived on the island i 1957 as consultant pathologist ther were 660 patients. In 1961, whe he left, there were less than half ths number.

More recently, with fewer tha 100 patients, it became logical t abandon Makogai and build th new 80-bed hospital. The five block have been erected in less than 1 months and are so well equippe that the hospital is to be used as training centre.

The hospital complex contains hostel with 38 beds and there ar a further 42 beds in the male an female wards.

There is an administration an treatment block, containing an x-ra unit and physiotherapy departmer and also a kitchen and dming-roor block. The recreation room in th hostel will also be used for oc cupational therapy. A swimmin; pool, two tennis courts and a volley ball court are scheduled to be buil soon.

Left, entrance to the modern new P. J.

Twomey Memorial Hospital just opened in Suva to replace the famous leper colony at Makogai, which is the larger of the two islands seen in the top pic ture. The smaller island is an outlier called Makodroga, which was also used by the colony.

Aerial photo: A. G. Shearer.