A desire to help others has always been the core of Sydney Adventist Hospital's mission, and our rich history is full of stories of healthcare professionals educated and working at the San, making contributions to healthcare in developing nations. The origins of the HealthCare Outreach program today began when former Hospital Superintendant Dr Bert Clifford took a team of surgeons to Atoifi Adventist Hospital in the Solomon Islands in the early 1970's. They went with the specific purpose to help clear the backlog of patients requiring major surgery at that time.
Then in 1986 a small group of volunteers from Sydney Adventist Hospital came together, inspired by the very real opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of those not as fortunate as themselves. Their first trip was to Tonga, to assist people dying of rheumatic heart disease, and 'Operation Open Heart' had begun - an internationally mobile team of surgical and cardiac volunteers.
The program soon expanded as different medical needs were identified in other countries. 'HealthCare Outreach' was adopted as an umbrella name for all the medical assistance programs that were organised. In 1994 the Nepal Plastic Surgery Program was established to repair cleft lip and palate defects and burn scar contractures (common from open fires in Nepal), and in 2005 the Cambodia Orthopaedic Program was born. In 2010, a Women's Health program will also be established in Nepal.
Twenty-three years later the commitment and passion of the volunteers and the many organisations in Australia in which they work, has seen tremendous growth in what is now known as Sydney Adventist Hospital's HealthCare Outreach program. Since that first trip in 1986, there have been just short of 100 successful trips that have seen in excess of 1,500 individuals give up their own time and pay their own way as volunteers, and more than 2,850 patients' lives have been transformed as a result.
Together with the support of AusAID through the Royal College of Surgeons, community service organisations, medical companies and civic-minded sponsors, HealthCare Outreach now operates cardiac, reconstructive and orthopaedic surgical programs, and has worked in over 13 countries around the world.
