Chch nurse at refugee camp

Press, 27 February 1980, Page 13

Chch nurse at refugee camp

A Christchurch nurse, Barbara Heasley, is working for the Save the Children Fund at a Thai refugee camp not far from the Kampuchean border. She is with another New - Zealand nurse, Frances Palmer, of Mount Eden. Both women worked for the fund in Vietnam and they are now with the medical team at the Sa Keo camp, which holds 35,000 refugees. The hospital section has 1000 patients, most of whom are suffering from malnutrition, malaria, and related conditions. A Wellington pediatri-

cian, Dr Margaret Neave, who has also worked in Vietnam, has left her job as Provincial Child Health Officer in Papua New Guinea to tend thousands of “boat people” in Hong Kong. The New Zealand medical team in the Sa Keo camp is awaiting permission from the Phnom Penh authorities to go to Kampuchea itself, where it is believed that there are fewer than 60 doctors to serve a population of 4.5 million. The Save the Children Fund involvement in South-East Asia will cost more than $2 million.