Bruce Connolly & Peter Scougall
In the mid 1990s the population of Vietnam was 78 million. There were no hand units nor specialist hand surgeons in the country. This program was started by The Rotary Club of Mosman and Associate Professor W. Bruce Conolly to help address those issues.
This team initially visited hospitals in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City, but soon focussed their efforts on Hue, where their courses were the most productive, thanks largely to Orthopaedic Department Director, Dr Pham Dang Nhat, his staff at Hue Central Hospital, and the encouragement of their extremely supportive hospital administration. As they soon learned, this is the key to successful outreach work. An engaged, organised host institution.
Over 25 years, this team completed 26 clinical visits and ran 16 courses, plus several webinars during COVID. The core team has included hand surgeons Professor Jagdeep Nanchahal (University of Oxford) and Dr Richard Lawson, Dr Damian Ryan, and Dr Peter Scougall (Sydney). At various times they had been joined by many other Australian surgeons, including Dr Tony Beard, Dr Jennifer Green, A/Prof Graham Gumley, Dr Abhinav Aggarwal, Dr Scott Harbison, Dr Tim Heath, Dr Ian Hargreaves, Dr Damian Ireland, Dr Ian Isaacs, Prof. Wayne Morrison, Dr Doug Wheen, Dr Sean Nicklin and Dr Tim Peltz. Hand Therapist Rosemary Prosser has also been involved since the beginning, assisted by Kylie Flynn, Cathy Merry, Clancy Tisdell and Daniel Vucovic.
In addition to Mosman Rotary, the program has been supported by the Australian Hand Surgery Society, Orthopaedic Outreach and St Luke’s Hospital, Sydney. Thanks to their generosity, they have donated new, high quality surgical equipment to course participants. During their visit in 2018, a surgeon from Da Nang reported that he had used the instruments provided, every week for 10 years. Thanks also to Medartis, Synthes, Medtronic Australia and Johnson and Johnson for generously donating equipment and technical support.
Each of their courses had been attended by an average of 60 to 80 surgeons from across the country. They have conducted tendon repair, fracture fixation and microsurgery workshops, treated hundreds of patients and taught Vietnamese Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgeons a range of hand surgery techniques.
The first Vietnamese Hand Unit was opened at Hue Central Hospital in 2002 with the help of this team led by Associate Professor W. Bruce Conolly. Starting with 10 beds, 3 surgeons and 389 hand surgery procedures that year, the unit grew to 50 beds, 12 surgeons and 1600 hand surgery procedures in 2018. Hue Central Hospital hand surgeons performed 122 complex microsurgical hand reconstructions between 2018 and 2022.
Over the last 25 years, the Vietnamese health demands and services have changed dramatically. We have adapted to their evolving training needs. The local community remain enthusiastic about our input as they ever were. It has been a pleasure to witness and contribute to their hand surgery journey.
The visiting surgical team, and the local Vietnamese surgeons, nurses, and support staff. The impact of the visit provides support for the entire medical community. Peter Scougall, Richard Lawson, Damian Ryan, Kylie Flynn (AHTA), Rosemary Prosser (AHTA).
