Timor-Leste’s National Health System is divided in hospital services and community health services.

Within the hospital services there are two reference hospitals and three regional hospitals – where these have the capacity to perform simple operations, such as appendicitis or cesareans, in the districts.

There are 65 Community Health Services and more than 200 Health Centers, connecting these with the SISCa centers, which are more than 600.

The Ambulance Central System serves the population in the Districts, and the ambulances coordinate with the Multifunction Cars, which rotate at the sub-district level. These transport the patients to the districts, and from there the ambulances transport them to Dili. In the Districts with many problems regarding infrastructure, where ambulances cannot go, aerial transportation is used, “we have contracted an Australian airplane for the transport of patients from Suai and Oecussi to Dili, we have requested a United Nations helicopter, and we also have a boat to connect Ataúro to Dili. Besides this, we also have over 50 horses in the whole territory, that transport patients through rivers, etc, the Vice-minister explained.

Timor-Leste has patient transfer agreements to Singapore, Australia and Indonesia. In Indonesia there is collaboration with three hospitals, one directed at the treatment of Veterans and two others for the treatment of the population in general.

In regards to national human resources, Timor-Leste has currently more than three thousand professional technicians, but the Timorese medical specialists, already trained, amount to only 50. The Timorese medical students that are in Cuba are around 450, whom will gradually arrive from August onwards, until February 2011. They are students of General Medicine that are studying in their 4th and 5th year. They are coming to finish their course at the University of Timor-Leste, with an additional one or two years specialization.

“I am very optimistic with both the students in Cuba and the Medical students that are currently in Indonesia and the Philippines, financed by their own families. These students are between 100 and 200 Timorese. If they come back they will also be integrated as human resources of the Ministry”, guaranteed the Vice-Minister for Health.