A team of surgeons from Australia and New Zealand are at the CWM Hospital during their weeklong visit hoping to operate on about 30 children.

A member of the team, Dr Alex Auldist said team members are happy to be able to offer their services to local patients and at the same time share their surgical skills with local counterparts.

He said they came across some challenging cases this week.

He said Fiji is fortunate to have a paediatric surgeon of the quality of Dr Jitoko Cama.

Dr Cama said Fiji is fortunate to have such a fine surgical team here, as working in isolation is very difficult and having the team here provides an experienced second opinion which is invaluable.

The Team leaves this weekend.

Over the past 12 months a total of 554 consultations were held and 195 surgical procedures performed by visiting surgical teams funded by the Australian aid program.

In 2010 the Australian aid program will fund 8 clinical visits to Colonial War Memorial Hospital and Lautoka Hospital in Fiji.