Treatment of diseases for people on the mainland in Vietnam still has difficulties. However, this kind of challenge also affects remote areas, especially on the offshore islands, including the Spratly Islands. For that reason, stories about the army doctors working on the islands are special.

We met doctor, Colonel Khuong Van Tru, vice chairman of the Military Medical Department of the Vietnam People’s Navy and Head of the work team on the Khanh Hoa-01 military hospital ship, on Truong Sa Lon Island. He told us that his working trip to provide check ups and treatment for civilians and soldiers on the Spratly Islands lasted for 40 days and stopped at over 34 destinations. It was a hard trip, but all participants on the trip tried their best to complete their mission.

Tru said that 2013 was the first year the Vietnam People’ s Navy sent a specialized hospital ship, Khanh Hoa-01, to provide health care for the people and soldiers on the Spratly Islands, the oil drilling platforms and soldiers on duty on the ships offshore to defend the country’s water territory.

His working team has 40 members, of whom 33 are doctors from the Naval Institute of Medicine based in Hai Phong, the Navy’s Hospital 87 in Khanh Hoa Province, and the medical treatment team of the Naval Region 4.

According to Colonel Tru, the trip of the hospital ship to the islands aimed not only to ensure the right for access to medical healthcare of the people and soldiers on the islands, but more importantly to make them confident in being taken care of physically and feel at ease when living far from the mainland. That’s why members of the ship had to carry out various kinds of jobs, including giving medical check ups, upgrading logistical services and medical appliances, and training operation skills for medical staffs on the islands.

In addition, they joined in rescuing fishermen who had accidents while fishing offshore.

Colonel Tru said fishermen often suffered from the bends due to their rudimentary diving equipment, which may kill them or make them forever paralyzed if there is not any timely treatment.

Normally, the time needed for such treatment is within 12 hours, which is really difficult for those who are on the offshore islands.

From 2014, large islands, like Truong Sa Lon Island, Song Tu Tay Island and Nam Yet Island, will be equipped with depressurization chambers. It is really good news to the islanders and fishermen who are fishing around the Spratly Islands.

Besides the specialized hospital ship which can go to the Spratly Islands to provide medical services, the medical clinics on the islands also play an important role in taking care of the islanders’ health, as they are closely connected to the life of the islanders and fishermen.

According to Le Minh Phong, head of the medical clinic on Truong Sa Lon Island, the clinic on the island can conduct small and medium-scale operations, as well as provide emergency aid to the patients before sending them to the mainland for further treatment.

The medical clinic on the Truong Sa Lon Island is the most modern one among those located on the Spratly Islands, which is equipped with modern devices, and has three doctors and seven nurses. Apart from checking and treating residents and soldiers on the island, the clinic also joins in rescuing fishermen in accidents while fishing offshore, or receiving patients sent from other islands.

“Most of our patients are fishermen,” Phong told us, “as they have to go fishing offshore where there are always a lot of risks. When they came to our clinic, they were always in critical conditions, and we used to conduct operations to save them.”

Phong said his clinic has been equipped with X-ray and blood test machines and a mobile depressurization chamber. In addition, Saigon Hospital 175 installed a telecom medicine system on the island, which can help in transmitting images and information of the patient to the mainland for direct instructions for an operation.

To improve the medical capacity for the sea and islands’ healthcare system, the Vietnamese government has set forth a healthcare strategy for the 2014-2020 periods. Beginning in 2014 more specialized hospital ships will be built to enhance capacity for the navy force.

The government’s investment in healthcare facilities on the islands, together with the army doctors’ wholehearted devotion, will ensure the people and soldiers on the islands to settle and maintain their fishing that contributes to defending the Spratly Islands of the Homeland.

VNP/VNN