The seventh doctorSHARE medical service with RSA dr. Lie Dharmawan in 2016 took place in West Seram Regency, Maluku Province, on August 15-25, 2016. This medical service took place in two locations, namely Riring Village, Taniwel District and Tahalupu Village, Waesala District. The volunteers involved totaled 18 people: 16 medical volunteers and 2 non-medical volunteers.
The doctorSHARE team visited Riring Village first on August 16-18, 2016. The journey to Riring Village took about five hours by motorized vehicle from Ambon, plus three hours on foot on hilly terrain.

The local community worked together to help the team carry medicines and medical equipment. The enthusiasm of the community could be seen as they welcomed the arrival of the doctorSHARE team.

“So far, it has been very difficult for us to reach health services. With the arrival of the doctor team, we who are in this remote village are very happy. We need health services,” said the Head of Riring Village, Welem Supulatu.

Coinciding with the 71st Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia, the team started medical services in Riring Village. There were 296 general medicine patients with the top five types of illnesses, namely Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI), myalgia (muscle pain), dyspepsia (abdominal pain), arthralgia (joint pain), and hypertension (high blood pressure).

Along with the general treatment, the doctorSHARE team also performed minor surgeries which were attended by 10 patients with 11 cases. The two most common cases were lipoma and atheroma cyst.

After the medical service in Riring Village, the team moved back to Ambon to prepare for the next medical service. On August 20-25, 2016, the team organized the second medical service in Tahalupu Village, West Seram Regency. Travel time to Tahalupu Village was one hour by land and three hours by sea using a speedboat.

The choppy sea conditions accompanied by strong winds became a challenge for the team, both on the way to and from Tahalupu Village, as well as when transferring postoperative patients from RSA dr. Lie Dharmawan to the local Puskesmas for further treatment. The lack of a dock meant that the RSA could not dock on the mainland of Tahalupu Village.

This kind of access difficulty is always complained about by the community when they need medical assistance.

“There is only an auxiliary health center here, with no permanent doctor. If you want to go to the hospital, you have to go to Ambon by speed for more than two hours. Not to mention that the fare is very heavy. When the waves are like this, people are often afraid to go out,” said a Tahalupu resident, Amirudin.

The report of doctorSHARE’s general medicine coordinator, Dr. Alita Palpialy, mentioned that there were 391 general medicine patients in Tahalupu Village. The five most prominent diseases in this village are worms, cephalgia (headache), ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection), dyspepsia (abdominal pain), and hypertension (high blood pressure).

There were 10 major surgical patients plus one obgyn surgical patient. In addition, there were 52 minor surgical patients with the two most common cases being circumcision and atheroma cysts. At the same time, an ultrasonography (USG) examination was also conducted by Dr. Evy Asali, SpOG at the Tahalupu Village Health Center. The total number of ultrasound patients in Tahalupu Village was 27 people.

Overall, doctorSHARE’s medical service activities in West Seram Regency, Maluku Province went smoothly. The coordination between doctorSHARE and the villagers went well. doctorSHARE also hopes that this medical service can ease the burden of the villagers who have been very difficult to obtain health services due to access problems.