Pacific Pulse Podcast

Questions about healthcare often focus on funding, services and workforce shortages, but wellbeing is about much more than access to a doctor. 

Fiji once relied heavily on open surgery for gynaecological procedures that could be done through minimally invasive techniques. Eighteen months later, Lautoka Hospital has increased case volumes by more than 80 per cent. 

A warning from a Vanuatu surgeon about the dangers of penile enlargement injections has once again put the spotlight on a quiet crisis leaving Pacific men in chronic pain.This edition of Pacific Pulse was a repeat of the program broadcast on 12 November 2025

Nearly one in three Pacific children in Aotearoa is living with hearing loss. But getting diagnosed is only part of the problem. 

For years, many Tongans living with severe hip and knee problems had just two options: travel overseas for treatment or learn to live with the pain. In late September, that began to change.

Parkinson's isn't only a disease of older age. Researchers are investigating why some Polynesian people are being diagnosed much earlier, sometimes in their 30s and 40s.

Pacific communities are among Australia’s fastest-growing populations, yet we remain largely invisible in the health data used to shape policy and services, Dr Matt Bray explains.

Betel nut chewing is deeply woven into life in Papua New Guinea, but it's also linked to some of the world's highest rates of oral cancer, and we hear from dentist and lecturer Dr Nerida Bun about the push to catch the disease earlier and save lives from city areas to the remote highlands. 

Money stress and wellbeing go hand-in-hand and financial advice that understands Pacific ways of being can make all the difference.

As the Pacific heads into another round of global climate talks, we hear what climate security looks like on the ground and catch up with two Christians paddling around Viti Levu to take on single-use plastics.