Aid Still Needed In Vietnam

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 2

Aid Still Needed In Vietnam

The tremendous need for medical aid in South Vietnam would by no means be alleviated by an end to the war there, Mrs Alexis Coleman, a New Zealander and head nurse at a hospital run by Project Concern in Vietnam, said yesterday.

Mrs Coleman is visiting Christchurch before returning tn South Vietnam later this month. The hospital where she had been working is at Dampao, in the central highlands not far from the former French summer resort, Dalat. Treatment of the hill tribes is its primary concern although all are given medical aid when necessary. Mrs Coleman, who joined Project Concern (a non-poli-tical, non-religious organisation giving medical aid to the underprivileged) at the beginning of last year, left her position as an assistant matron at an Auckland hospital to go to South Vietnam. Training Staff She said that, as well as giving medical treatment, one of the main concerns of the hospital was to train sufficient staff to keep the hospitals running should the need arise.

“The American members of Project Concern are already stressing the need for Australians and New Zealanders to begin increasing their numbers in the hospitals as much as possible in case the Americans have to leave,” she said. Although the Americans expressed the hope that they would be able to continue medical aid after the withdrawal of troops there was a possifiility that all of them would have to leave the country. “If the Vietnamese further demand that all non-Vietna-mese leave the country, all the hospitals set up are likely to just stand there and rot if sufficient Vietnamese are not

trained to run them,” Mrs Coleman said. At present the hospital at Dampao trained about 40 nurses, male and female, a year, taking 20 at a time for a six-month course. The training was of the most basic kind and enabled those taking the course to return to their villages and use medical supplies to treat their own people. Present Staff The staff at the hospital at the moment included Dr L. Reitz, an American, and his wife, a nurse, Mr Coleman, an English registered midwife, a nurse from West Germany, two nurses from the United States, a Canadian and New Zealander in charge of the laboratory, a New Zealand chemist, and two Chinese doctors. Another New Zealander was also doing general maintenance work.

Dr Reitz would also be In charge of the new hospital being built by Project Concern half-way between Dampao and Dalat—a hospital that would be better equipped for major surgery and more serious cases, Mrs Coleman said.

The work that was done, and remained to be done, was immense, she said. As well as patients in the hospital, up to 150 a day were treated as outpatients and up to 200 a day were treated by teams going out to the villages, sometimes by helicopter, sometimes over extremely bad roads. As many of the villages were in war zones, helicopter travel was often the only way to get there. For road travel, the medical teams used the one utility vehicle or the one ambulance they had, both these vehicles coming in for extremely harsh treatment on the rough roads. Mechanics Needed "Mechanics are desperately needed in South Vietnam to keep vehicles in running order,” Mrs Coleman said. “Any mechanic wanting work

over there would get it immediately.” Mrs Coleman said so far the hospital had been left strictly alone by the Viet Cong even when fighting had been going on close by. “We have adopted a policy of carrying no arms, using no guards and treating anyone who comes in need. Although the Viet Cong have ambushed troops time and again in the area, we travel around safely and are very rarely even stopped for questioning,” she said. She said the only interference from the Viet Cong was their practice of setting up road blocks when supplies were coming through and demanding a toll from the drivers to be allowed safe passage. But the equipment and supplies themselves were rarely stolen. “We also get the occasional Viet Cong slipping into our training courses—we suspect that we did at one stage train one of them who then went back to his own people, but it’s very hard to tell who is a Viet Cong and who isn’t,” Mrs Coleman said. Few Casualties Apart from occasional fighting casualties, the Vietnamese are treated for malaria, plague, tuberculosis, skin diseases, and a wide range of diseases caused by malnutrition. Mrs Coleman said one of the worst problems was the one of language and so many Vietnamese were taught as much English as possible, partly so they had a better understanding of their training and partly so they would be able to keep up the connections with supply stations later.

“At present the supplies from Project Concern are given to the Vietnamese Provincial Hospital in Saigon and we have arranged to receive our supplies through them.” Mrs Coleman said. “The main reason for this is so the Vietnamese who may at some point be left in charge of the hospital will have this communication line with their own people rather than having direct dealings with outsiders.” Mrs Coleman said New Zealanders had done a great deal to help through the Project Concern branch here both by sending people and funds. Hot Water She said Christchurch Jaycees had recently offered to provide the hot water-system for the hospital at Dampao. The next thing on the list of priorities for the hospital would be another utility vehicle that could stand up to the wear and tear of the roads, and it was hoped that a mechanic-driver for it could also be found, she said. Mrs Coleman, who returned to New Zealand primarily for an urgent eye operation, said she was also thinking of taking a crash helmet back with her, as a possible cause of the eye trouble had been several sharp knocks she had received while travelling in the ambulance on Vietnam roads. “The diagnosis on my eye was a detached retina, and at the time the doctor asked if I had received a knock on the head. The trouble could recur so a crash helmet would be a good investment,” she said.