Truong Sa Town Clinic-the support center for fishermen

The island’s military doctors support soldiers, locals, and fishermen in defending Vietnam’s territorial waters.

In addition to three patient rooms, Truong Sa Town Clinic also has an operating room, modern medical diagnosis and treatment equipment, and a video system connected with the mainland for emergency assistance.

The clinic’s doctors and nurses are permanent members of Military Hospital 175. Most of them are very young.

The volume of work on the island is huge and more diverse than on the mainland. Doctors and nurses in Truong Sa must deal with all kinds of diseases and traumas, so they are always working to upgrade their skills.

In serious cases they seek help from mainland doctors via telephone or email. 

Bui Dinh Duong, a member of Truong Sa district’s People’s Committee, said, “The army medical corps on Truong Sa Island is on the national front line and far from the mainland. Fishermen on offshore fishing voyages often meet with accidents and need first aid until they can be moved to a central hospital."

"So the doctors and nurses at the clinic have been carefully selected for their high professional qualifications and experience. Some of them have worked on Truong Sa Island many times. Truong Sa Town Clinic has sufficient medicine to treat fishermen, the army, and island residents,” he added.

After a two-hour surgery on a Quang Ngai fisherman who suffered an appendicitis attack while fishing in the Truong Sa fishing ground, Doctor Thai Ngoc Binh, head of the clinic, declared the operation a success.

“We held a consultation with mainland doctors immediately after examining him. We performed the surgery that same night. This was a complicated operation which took 2 hours. But now the patient’s condition is good,” Binh explained.

He said that although the clinic’s equipment wasn’t as modern as in mainland hospitals, he and his colleagues did their best to meet the needs of the army and other people on the island.

Binh said they had successfully treated bone fractures, appendicitis, urinary tract infections, and chest and abdominal pains.

“Last year, the clinic provided treatment for more than 2,600 people, 600 of them were emergency cases. The clinic also performed some successful operations,” he added.

Nguyen Van Tuan, the town’s leader, said the clinic receives hundreds of fishermen each year who have gotten sick or been injured while on a fishing voyage.

“Last year we saved many people with life-threatening injuries or illnesses,” Tuan said.