Work In Clinics Rewarding

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31989, 16 May 1969, Page 12

Work In Clinics Rewarding

Working in medical clinics for the poorer people of Hong Kong was one of the most rewarding things he had ever done, said Dr P. Kennedy, of Christchurch, last evening. Dr Kennedy has just returned from Hong Kong after working there with Project Concern since February. His wife and four children remained in New ZealandProject Concern is a non-

profit medical relief organisation which was started by an American doctor in 1962 after he had been to Hong Kong and seen the refugee problemThe organisation is supported by funds collected by community-service groups in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Dr Kennedy’s fair to Hong Kong and back was paid by the Christchurch branch of Project Concern, with the help of other persons and organisationsProject Concern now has four clinics in Hong Kong, a hospital complex in South Vietnam, and clinics in Mexico and Tennessee. The aim is to provide medical services where they are not otherwise available, or where persons could not otherwise afford them-

Dr Kennedy worked at all four Hong Kong clinics, although he lived for the three months at the floating clinic in Hong Kong harbour—a converted harbour ferry. The four clinics treat about 400 patients a day. Dr Kennedy said. Where they can afford it, the patients pay a nominal charge. Like most people, they would rather pay something than have to accept a hand-out, Dr Kennedy said. The Hong Kong clinics employ Chinese staff, including doctors and nurses, but are staffed as far as possible by volunteers, who come from more than 30 different countries. Each volunteer saves the clinics about SNZ66O a month, each volunteer being paid a nominal subsistence allowance only. One of the most important tasks of the volunteers is to raise the medical standards of the clinics.

There are both private doc-

tors and Government clinics in Hong Kong, where medical services are good, but they are very much overworked, Dr Kennedy said. People who would not go to other doctors because of distance or expense would, however, come to the Project Concern clinics. The main medical problems in Hong Kong were respiratory complaints (particularly tuberculosis), intestinal diseases, and nervous conditions. Tuberculosis was the worst killer in Hong Kong. Nervous conditions were usually caused by financial problems. Hygiene education was very important, and the Government was making a major effort in this direction. People had to be taught not to spit, and not to cough over other people, for instance. The clinic staff always cooked their own food, Dr Kennedy said, and all water had to be boiled—even water used for cleaning one’s teeth. When he first arrived in Hong Kong, he soon contracted a stomach upset, and lost about a stone in weight in six weeks, Dr Kennedy said. He had, in the end, been very sorry to leave Hong

Kong, for he had grown to like the people very much He had also been very touched to find out how sorry they were to see him go, Dr Kennedy said-