SAF DEPLOYS MOBILE MEDICAL TEAMS TO REMOTE VILLAGES IN QUAKE-HIT NEPAL

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has deployed mobile medical teams to the remote rural areas of Nepal, as part of its ongoing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operation in the earthquake-hit country.

A seven-man team arrived on 3 May at the village of Chilaune, 15km from Gokarna, where the main SAF medical team is currently stationed together with medical teams from the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) and the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH).

They are providing medical aid to the elderly and injured villagers who have difficulties travelling to Gokarna to seek treatment.

This is the first time that the residents in Chilaune village, with a population of about 2,500, are receiving foreign medical help since the earthquake struck over a week ago.

Other mobile medical teams have been dispatched to other remote villages in Nepal.

Meanwhile, in Gokarna, the doctors and medics have treated over 1,100 patients. They were the first foreign medical team to arrive in the town of 20,000 people, located at the outskirts of the capital city of Kathmandu.

Their arrival brought relief to the Nepalese, many of whom were suffering from fractures, sprains, diarrhoea, acute asthma and severe dehydration.

"Because of the earthquake, some of them - their lungs cannot take the dust - came down with a lot of respiratory illnesses," said medical officer Major (MAJ) (Dr) Jonathan Lim, describing the medical conditions of the patients.

He added: "Because of displacement from their homes, they have to consume water that is not clean. As a result of that, they have diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting."

The SAF field clinic in Gokarna continues to draw long queues of people waiting to seek treatment.

Ms Sabitei Pandey, an elderly Nepalese who took her sister to seek treatment, said: "The medical camp of Singapore is very, very helpful. They helped all poor and all people similarly."

Ms Shanti Lama, 18, a local nursing student added: "We feel very grateful that the Singapore people are helping us (in) times of trouble."

One of the challenges faced by the SAF medical team was the language barrier. Most Nepalese do not speak English. During consultation, the medical officers and medics work with local interpreters to communicate with the patients.

Recalling her experience, medic Military Expert 1 (ME1) Shorini Dhurgha said: "Actually it's quite easy to interact with them other than the language problem. They listen to us, and they take our advice."

Speaking to the media on Labour Day 1 May, Lieutenant Colonel (Dr) Adrian Tan, commander of the SAF medical team, said the team was prepared to stay for as long as they could make a meaningful contribution.

"I foresee that the challenges would be to reach out further to anybody else who has been affected by the earthquake, but has been unable to receive medical attention. So we will be putting our effort into looking for this population of people," he said.

MAJ (Dr) Lim added: "We want to reach out to villages further away, and pockets of people that have not been reached. And we will try to see what aid they need, and support them as best as we can."

Additional support

The team in Gokarna started receiving additional support last Thursday from an eight-man medical team from the RBAF who flew in on a Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) C-130 aircraft.

Their deployment was made possible through the Brunei international liaison officer at the Changi Regional HADR Coordination Centre (RHCC).

The SAF also sent six additional RHCC personnel to beef up its six-man advance team in Nepal, who are assisting the Nepalese authorities in coordinating the relief effort.

The latest to join the SAF medical team was a team of three doctors and four nurses from MOH who arrived on 3 May