After Gwadar: Chinese Red Cross to set up emergency care unit in Quetta

CRCF VC seeks guidance and support of Pakistani government

BEIJING: Chinese Red Cross Foundation (CRCF) Vice Chairman Liu Xuanguo has said that a second emergency care unit will be set up in Quetta this year.

The first emergency unit of this kind was completed under the China-Pakistan Life Rescue Corridor in Gwadar last year.



"I hope to receive guidance and strong support of the relevant authorities of the Pakistani government in this regard," he said in an interview with APP on Sunday.

About functioning of the emergency care centre of Gwadar, he said in combination with the actual needs of the project, CRCF consulted relevant medical experts and provided the necessary medical and office equipment for the centre.

At the same time, Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) decided after consultation that RCSC will send a medical team to the centre for providing emergency medical services, training Pakistani medical staff and exploring the operational mode of the centre.



He said, “The medical team will work in the centre for two years. The centre will be fully handed over to the PRCS for independent operation.

The first RCSC medical team sent to Gwadar Port consists of 12 people, including medical experts from Huashan Hospital of Fudan University and Beijing Red Cross 999 Emergency Rescue Centre as well as RCSC project personnel.

They have such capabilities as pre-hospital emergency care, general surgery, test, pharmacy, emergency transportation, and disaster relief.

Currently, the medical team has been working in Gwadar for nearly six months, he added.

According to the project plan, the medical team will take a half-year rotation, and the second medical team will go to Pakistan for rotation at the end of April 2018.

The second medical team consists of nine people, including medical experts from Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital of Fudan University, and the Beijing Red Cross Emergency Rescue Centre as well as CRCF coordinators.



The vice chairman said that by the end of March this year, the CRCF has invested nearly 10 million yuan in the infrastructure, equipment, and personnel of the China-Pakistan Fraternity Emergency Care Centre in Gwadar.

The centre has received more than 1,000 patients from China and Pakistan. It has also conducted 260 medical examinations for primary school students from Faqeer Primary School as well as staff from the Gwadar Port Authority, and both the school and authority were built with the assistance of China.

As the medical team has been providing medical services, it has won high praise from the local people because of its excellent treatment of local patients.

Due to the lack of female doctors in local hospitals, especially gynaecologists, the number of local women who came to see a doctor surged.



The smooth progress of the China-Pakistan Life Rescue Corridor was supported and helped by the relevant departments of the Chinese and Pakistan governments, the Red Cross Society and the Red Crescent Society.

About the Belt and Road Fraternity Fund, he said it was founded by RCSC and is aimed at optimising the Belt and Road humanitarian service supply as well as setting up global emergency rescue corridors and rescue stations, training medical personnel, and providing aid for people with urgent humanitarian needs, in the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.

The China-Pakistan Life Rescue Corridor, launched last year, is the first key programme implemented for the Belt and Road Fraternity Fund.

Based on the construction of the China-Pakistan Railway and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the China-Pakistan Life Rescue Corridor aims at promoting the supply of key humanitarian resources such as medical services along the route and providing medical care and life safety for the CPEC.