AGA-ENT in Indonesia

We have worked closely with our partners at the Dr. Sardjito Hospital/Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and affiliated district general hospitals in collaboration with Prof. Bing Tan and Dr. Sagung Indrasari to support the local NPC awareness and early detection programme.

The company KARL STORZ kindly donated endoscopes worth around £20,000 in 2016 and furtherendoscopes worth around £10.000 in 2017 to aid the early detection of NPC in district hospitals where endoscopic equipment was not available. In 2018 we have also run a Storz Endoscopy Workshop and other courses locally with a delegation from the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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Banyumas District Hospital, ENT Department

Banyumas regional general hospital is a level 2 facility located in the Bayumas regency (Central Java) and has an Otolaryngology department with two ENT surgeons. KARL STORZ and AGA ENT have already provided the department with endoscopes both in 2016 and 2017. Mr. Okhovat showed that the equipment is being used extremely effectively in diagnosis and management of ENT patients on a daily basis. Images are recorded, documented and stored securely for future follow up and surveillance. The faculty receives a resident and medical students on ENT rotation. Patients who are diagnosed with NPC, are referred to Yogyakarta for treatment and further management.

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RSUD Wonosari, ENT Department

Wonosari hospital ENT department is a level 3 unit led by Dr Ima (head of ENT surgery). KARL STORZ and AGA-ENT have provided the department with endoscopic equipment and a camera system which were brought there by Mr. Matt Lechner in 2016 and 2017. These have been used effectively for the early detection of nasopharyngeal cancer and other head and neck cancers. Strong efforts have been made to engage with local general practitioners in order to improve the head and neck cancer referral pathway. It was evident that the donated equipment has helped the ENT department at this busy district general hospital enormously.

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Dr. Sardjito Hospital ENT Department, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The main regional ENT surgery level 1 centre is based at the Dr. Sardjito Hospital (UGM hospitals) in Yogyakarta. All regional referrals are managed here in collaboration with oncology services. The department is well staffed with around 15 ENT residents. Patients are seen in a busy outpatient clinic and referred for either oncological treatment or surgical management. Mr. Okhovat has established regular simulation training sessions and hopes to return there in 2019.

November 2019

Mr. Liam Sutton, a Higher Surgical Trainee in ENT/Head and Neck Surgery at the Royal London Hospital in London, was awarded the fourth 2019 AGA-ENT – KARL STORZ fellowship. He has already been part of the team who brought ENT equipment, worth more than £20,000 (kindly sponsored by the company KARL STORZ), to the Banyumas District Hospital, Wonosari District Hospital and Dr. Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta (Indonesia) in 2016. During the visit in 2016 he worked on a project on the advancement of tracheostomy care in Yogyakarta and published this work in the journal Clinical Otolaryngology. During the current trip, he continued this 2016 project work on local tracheostomy care and advanced the NPC Early Detection Initiative.

October 2018

Mr. Saleh Okhovat (ST6 ENT Registrar, West of Scotland) was awarded the second of the two 2018 AGA-ENT – KARL STORZ fellowships. He travelled to Indonesia and helped to drive forward the fight against nasopharyngeal cancer by training of staff on how to use the previously donated endoscopic equipment, ensuring the sustainability and nurturing the relationship between the project partners. The visit took place in October 2018 and was centred in and around Yogyakarta with visits to the surrounding district general hospitals. This ongoing collaborative work was greatly facilitated by the YogyaHealth project and the ASEA-Uninet collaborative.

2015 – 2017

During this time KARL STORZ equipment was donated and installed at the Banyamas District Hospital and Wonosari District Hospital, worth around £25,000. Mr. Matt Lechner travelled there in 2015, 2016 and 2017, who was joined by Mr. Liam Sutton in 2016. Miss Mona Mozaffari travelled to Indonesia in 2015. During this time the team completed work on improving the tracheostomy care in Yogyakarta and Yogyakarta Province together with Dr. Sagung Indrasari and her team and under the guidance of Prof. Tony Narula. The results were later published in the journal of Clinical Otolaryngology:

Barriers to improving tracheostomy care in low and middle income countries: our experience of a 23 patient closed loop audit cycle. L. Sutton, M. Mozaffari, A. Mintarti, S.R. Indrasari, A. Narula, M. Lechner; Clinical Otolaryngology; 2018; doi: 10.1111/coa.13151