Aust. Cuts Medical Aid To Vietnam

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 13

Aust. Cuts Medical Aid To Vietnam

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

CANBERRA, July 4.

Australia intends to narrow her field of medical aid in South Vietnam, the department of External Affairs has announced.

It has been decided not to replace the surgical team at Vung Tau that completed its assignment at the end of last month, and it is expected that the similar team of seven at Long Xuyen will not be replaced when it com-

pletes its assignment in December.

Instead, Australia will concentrate its medical aid on two centres—Bien Hoa, and the new medical centre at Gia Dinh, near Saigon. The department says that help at Bien Hoa. will continue for a further five years if there is a need for it, and that a team of 18 will leave Australia soon to replace the present group there.

As the Australian teams are withdrawn from Vung Tau and Long Xuyen, the country will concentrate on a project to make Bien Hoa a teaching hospital, with Australian surgeons as the basis of the teaching staff. Explaining the planned withdrawal of aid from the two areas, the department says it has become evident that in some regions where Australian teams' have (been working, the availability of Vietnamese doctors and surgeons has increased to the extent that there is no longer a pressing need for such aid in those areas.