Taiwan sent the first medical team from Asia to Ukraine. A team of 11 medical professionals from Mackay Memorial Hospital on Monday departed for Ukraine to provide 10 days of medical and psychological support to people on the ground.
Taiwan Christian Medical Association physician Chern Herng-der (陳恆德) in October last year contacted the hospital to ask whether its International Medical Service Center was interested in working with the Luke Christian Medical Mission to send a humanitarian mission to Ukraine, the hospital said in a news release yesterday.
Donations have been flooding into Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than a year ago, but the eastern European nation is still lacking in medical resources, especially on-the-ground assistance, the association said.
Photo courtesy of MacKay Memorial Hospital
A month later, the hospital began putting together a team of volunteers, it said.
The team departed on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Warsaw yesterday.
Members of the group are to take a train to Ukraine today, where they are to stay until Thursday next week.
Led by center director Tsai Wei-de (蔡維德), the 11 volunteers consist of experts in emergency medicine and other fields, as well as three from outside the Mackay system, the hospital said, adding that one volunteer resides in the US.
The purpose of the mission is to offer free consultations to patients at mobile healthcare units, assist local physicians with surgical operations at hospitals, provide educational activities and offer psychological support to people after major trauma, the hospital said.
It is also to assess Ukraine’s medical needs with the aim of drawing up long-term plans for assistance, it added.
As northern Taiwan’s oldest Western-style hospital, Mackay Memorial has been providing humanitarian services for 150 years, the hospital said.
In 1999, it became the first Christian hospital in the nation to do medical missionary work overseas, it added.
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