Health's helping hand extends its East Timor aims

08/25/2005 03:17:29 PM EDT

CANBERRA TIMES

A team of Canberra specialists will travel soon to East Timor to continue work on cooperative health-care arrangements.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said acute-care nursing specialist Professor Paul Arbon, clinical nurse consultant Di Dreimanis and ACT Health chief executive Dr Tony Sherbon would visit Dili later this year.

Senior nursing training, providing second-hand equipment and advising on public health and medical registration were some of the areas already identified where ACT Health could assist the East Timorese. An application had been lodged with AusAID's Government-to- Government Program to fund nurse training in critical care and infection control.

''I have always been determined that the friendship agreement the ACT Government signed with the Dili District Administration should be more than symbolic,'' Mr Stanhope said.

''It should be practical, and personal.

That's why I am delighted to see real progress in the important area of health care.''