Dr. Mere Tuivaga

Dr. Mere Tuivaga is a consultant general surgeon at Lautoka Hospital, Fiji's second-largest public hospital and the principal referral centre for the Western Division of Viti Levu. She is one of a small cohort of indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) female surgeons and has become a prominent figure in Pacific surgical medicine.

With 14 years of surgical experience, Dr. Tuivaga has a broad general surgical practice encompassing emergency and elective abdominal surgery, the management of trauma, and the surgical treatment of conditions prevalent in tropical settings including advanced infective processes and complications of neglected tropical diseases. She performs laparoscopic and open surgery at Lautoka Hospital and provides surgical cover for emergency cases across the Western Division.

Dr. Tuivaga is committed to building surgical capacity in Fiji and has been involved in surgical training programmes for junior medical officers in partnership with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' Pacific programme. She works closely with visiting surgical teams from Australia and New Zealand who undertake volunteer surgical outreach in Fiji.

Dr. Tuivaga completed her MBBS at the Fiji School of Medicine before undertaking surgical training in Fiji and Australia through a joint programme supported by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). She was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in General Surgery, making her among the few Pacific-trained surgeons to hold this distinction.

She holds a Graduate Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reflecting her focus on surgical challenges specific to tropical and resource-limited environments. She has completed advanced laparoscopic surgery training at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Australia, and trauma surgery short courses through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Dr. Tuivaga's surgical expertise encompasses emergency abdominal surgery — including appendectomy, bowel resection for obstruction or perforation, and emergency laparotomy for trauma — performed in conditions typical of a Pacific island district hospital. She also performs elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy and hernia repair.

In tropical surgical practice, Dr. Tuivaga manages infected wounds, tropical ulcers, advanced soft tissue infections including necrotising fasciitis, and the surgical complications of typhoid fever and other tropical infections. She is experienced in managing abdominal trauma and penetrating injuries in the context of Fiji's emergency surgical service.

Dr. Tuivaga is dedicated to serving Pacific island communities and contributing to the development of sustainable surgical services in the region. She has presented audit data on emergency surgical outcomes at Lautoka Hospital at the Pacific Health Research Conference and the RACS Pacific Regional Training Centre symposium.

She contributes to the RACS Building Operative and Trauma Skills (BOLTS) course for Pacific surgeons and is a co-investigator on a Pacific Surgical Association study examining appendicitis presentation and outcomes across Pacific hospitals. She advocates for expanded laparoscopic surgery access in Pacific island hospitals.

Lautoka Hospital serves as a surgical referral centre for parts of western Fiji and receives patients from smaller Pacific island nations when surgical care is required beyond local capacity. Dr. Tuivaga's practice includes patients from Kiribati, Tuvalu, and other islands who require elective or semi-urgent surgical procedures not available in their home countries.

As most of Dr. Tuivaga's work involves emergency surgery, international patients are best served through advance communication with the hospital's medical team if planning to travel to Fiji for elective procedures. She works closely with Fiji's patient coordination office to facilitate planned surgical admissions for international patients.

Dr. Tuivaga has received the Fiji Medical Association Young Doctor Award and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Pacific Fellowship Award. She is recognised by the Fiji Ministry of Health for her contribution to emergency surgical services in the Western Division and has been appointed a member of the Fiji Health Sector Development Programme surgical advisory group.