Project RENEW and Department of Health reviewed mine victim assistance/trauma care cooperation program in 2010 and discussed the 2011 action plan

The workshop on review of mine victim assistance/trauma care program between Project RENEW and DoH.

Dong Ha, Quang Tri (30-12-2010): A workshop was organized in Dong Ha City by Project RENEW and Quang Tri Provincial Department of Health (DoH) to review the cooperative program of mine victim assistance/trauma care in 2010 and discuss the action plan for 2011. The workshop was participated by a total of 30 medical professionals including leaders from the provincial Department of Health, managers of Quang Tri General Hospital and representatives of district hospitals.

Since 2006 under the assistance and the funding from Tromsoe Mine Victim Resource Center (TMC), the partnership between Project RENEW and the DoH has focused on improving the first aid/trauma care and treatment capacity for local health workers in response to trauma accidents.

Local medical workers practice first aid exercise on a wounded pig on the rice field.

The program was initiated following the successful Advanced Life Support training for 21 local doctors by Dr. Hans Husum, the former director of TMC. These doctors now act as qualified trainers to re-train health workers of lower-levels in Quang Tri Province on trauma emergency response.. In 2010, a total of 420 medical workers who work at province and district hospitals, commune and village clinics were trained on basic and advanced life support focusing on pre-hospital treatment and first aid skills.

According to Dr. Tran Kim Phung, Vice Director of Quang Tri DoH, the most important achievement of the four-year-old partnership between Project RENEW and DoH has been the improved capacity of grassroots medical staff in terms of community trauma emergency response. “So far, 76% of the total local health care staff working in trauma field at different levels have been upgraded and improved with basic and advanced first aid skills, providing a better trauma emergency response capacity which didn’t exist before we launched this project,” Dr. Phung said.

Also in 2010, the mobile Prosthetics and Orthotics (P&O) Outreach van was expanded into Dakrong District. In partnership with the Quang Tri General Hospital, this mobile P&O program examined and provided assistive devices and rehabilitation training to a total of 83 people with disabilities residing in this mountainous district.

Project RENEW also donated a first aid teaching model and equipment for the Quang Tri Medical School and provided first aid bags to all commune clinics in Trieu Phong District.

For 2011, beside the annual activities, Project RENEW and DoH has agreed to focus on implementing the two sub-projects, the Emergency and Dispatch Centers and Deliver Life Support in project areas.

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