Trade

Winds

Gap In Medical

Know-How

South Pacific countries face a growing problem in main taining and repairing ex pensive and increasingly sophisticated medical equip ment.

These problems came to light during the Fifth Com monwealth Medical Con ference in Wellington in November. The conference was attended by about 150 delegates.

Mr Robert Sutherland, of the Australian Hospitals and Charities Commission, pre sented a report prepared after visiting Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

He said it was evident that none of the developing coun tries could, as things stood, be self-supporting in the pro vision of facilities and staff for the installation, maintenance and repair of their medical equipment.

He found they all wanted to have modern health care facilities and to maintain the equipment themselves, but noted that there was a definite education gap where advanc

ed equipment-orientated

training was concerned.

Although the countries visited were planning to han dle the problem, existing ar rangements were mostly in adequate, “and the difficulties are likely to become progressively greater as fur ther equipment, particular sophisticated equipment, is installed,” Mr Sutherland said.

He saw a need for ra tionalised purchases of equip ment if a successful main tenance programme was to be achieved, and suggested it would be at least 10 years before suitably trained and experienced local people could become available for responsible positions.

Papua New Guinea was the only country visited which had a suitable training scheme in general electronics and in strument technology. But this scheme could not produce a trained general technician in

under four to five years, and further training would still be needed on medical instru ments.

Mr Sutherland suggested that a training course might be designed on a co-operative basis to produce medical engineering technicians. Con tinuing outside help would be necessary to support it and provide bridging technology.

He also stressed that any training programmes be aim ed at producing medical engineering technicians. “To aim at a higher level at this stage would be unrealistic,” he added.

Mr Sutherland’s re commendation was that the South Pacific governments ap proach the government of an appropriate Commonwealth country for short-term ap proximately 10 years— prac tical assistance. This aid should include: • An advisory bureau to ra tionalise the purchasing of equipment and maintenance programmes; • Engineering and techni cal support for existing and new equipment, plus main tenance programmes; and • The organisation of train ing programmes for nationals of the developing countries so that they may eventually take over the duties themselves.

From William Gas son in Wellington.

Major tax probe

in PNG

Papua New Guinea was re ported late last year to be in vestigating the taxation affairs of about 80 companies, mainly run by Australians.

Specialist officers from the Australian Taxation Office were helping in the investiga tion.

Principals of some of the companies no longer live in PNG, and the government believes that tax payments amounting to several million dollars may have been avoid ed.

In 1977 alone the investiga tion was expected to lead to the recovery of the equivalent of $3.34 million.

The matter was raised in parliament by the Member for Rabaul, Mr John Kaputin, who is involved in businesses owned solely by Papua New Guinea nationals. Mr Kaputin asked if the taxation office had power to impound the

passports of businessmen in companies subject to in vestigation.

The Finance Minister, Mr Holloway, said that as a general rule principals of foreign companies operating in PNG were not allowed to leave the country during certain major tax investiga tions.

Fiji sugar-loading

goes mechanised

Fiji plans to do away with the manual loading of sugar at Lautoka and Labasa, through which most sugar is exported.

The Fiji Sugar Corporation has started work on a $7.5 million bulk-loading system which will dramatically speed the turnround of ships.

Fiji for years has resolutely set its face against mechanisa tion of the industry because of the employment offered by the manual systems.

The systems at Lautoka and Labasa are expected to leave about 200 men without jobs.

However, the FSC pledges to do its best to find alternative jobs for them. The big Seaqa qa scheme in Vanua Levu, for example, may offset some of the redundancies at Labasa.

Mr George Moody-Stuart, FSC managing director, ex pects the bulk loading of sugar to save Fiji at least $1.5 million annually in foreign exchange.