4 minute read
MEDICAL CARE IN A MILITARY COUP
MATT SHAND, JOURNALIST
Working in a secret hospital at the front line of Myanmar’s civil war takes the challenges of providing health care in a resource-constrained environment to a whole other level. Through UnionAID, ASMS is making a small contribution to help that happen.
In a secret underground hospital near the front lines of fighting in Myanmar’s long-running civil war, a junior doctor, identified only as TC, treats patients while coordinating volunteer efforts to get health care to people who desperately need it.
Myanmar erupted into violence three years ago when the military retook full control of the state in a coup, ousting the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and ending six years of shared rule between elected government and the armed forces.
The day after the coup, peaceful resistance began, including a strike by public sector workers, initiated by doctors and nurses. But growing acts of civil disobedience were met with the imposition of martial law, arrests and the use of force. As a result, as well as ongoing peaceful protest, armed resistance re-escalated in regions across Myanmar.
Today TC must keep their hospital’s location a secret to prevent it becoming a target of attack. International news agencies report the destruction of hospitals as part of airstrikes and artillery bombardment by the forces of the State Administration Council (the administrative body put in place by the military to replace the democratically elected government).
“We had to build the hospital underground and keep it hidden so we can protect ourselves from the airstrikes,” TC says.
“It is protected and so far, the enemy does not know where it is.
“It is our health centre. The only health centre many people can access. We treat people from the conflict frontlines and perform emergency medicine and paediatrics for the people.”
TC is not yet a fully qualified doctor and juggles completing their medical training with coordinating the volunteer effort to ensure the hospital continues to run within a warzone.
“We have four doctors and about 23 nurses as volunteers at the hospital. Next year, when I qualify, there will be five doctors.
“All of us know people who have lost their life in the fighting. We decided we need a hospital. If we were not here, it would take six hours –maybe more – to get treatment.”
Running a hospital in a war zone is a constant struggle for resources and for safety.
“It is hard,” TC says. “We need anaesthesia. We need more doctors. We need vehicles to transport people to hospitals. The conflict keeps going. We hear the planes and hide in bunkers. Luckily, the hospital is underground.”
One day the hospital staff had to perform more than 30 surgical procedures on patients during a 24-hour period.
“We will cure about 6,000 patients in a year –including soldiers and civilians,” says TC.
“It is hard work. The risk and danger is real. We have to keep ourselves secret – the hospital secret and the people secret. We have to hide, and it is traumatising.”
The efforts of TC’s hospital are being supported by charitable donations.
New Zealand based charitable organisation UnionAID has been liaising with partners in Myanmar and helping with relief efforts. An urgent appeal for donations to the
Myanmar Democracy Fight Back Fund is currently underway.
The funds are used to support initiatives such as TC’s hospital, organise workers to peacefully oppose the military coup, and provide legal aid for those arrested for peaceful protest.
Evaluation by UnionAID shows their funds have been used to recruit nurses and doctors and source medical equipment.
TC says their hospital is extending its work to support local women to make mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria. They have sewing machines, but they need fabric.
As the conflict continues, the hospital is also taking on a role as an education facility, as schools have also been the target of airstrikes.
“We started up an education centre and we will teach English and Chinese courses as well as digital literacy and development programmes,”
TC says. “In our wider work we also work with water sterilisation projects.”
Visit unionaid.org.nz/nursesmyanmar if you would like to donate.
