Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

Project Care Provides Care for Thousands There are millions of physically handicapped patients in China suffering f r om congenital abnormalities, brain damages, neurological impairments, or old injuries, who need all-round medical care. In 1993, alumni of the University's New Asia College initiated Project Care to bring voluntary medical services to poor and remote parts of China. So far over 300 doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, prosthetists, and plaster technicians have used their own leave to make special trips to the mainland to treat these patients. Prof. Leung Ping-chung, professor of Orthopaedics and Traumatology and coordinator of Project Care, points out that the uniqueness of the project is its non-dependence on high technology. Emphasis is placed on using local resources for treatment. Medical personnel f r om these remote areas are involved in the process of surgery and rehabilitation, which enables skills and new conceptions of rehabilitation to take root on local soil. Since its first round of service in 1993, the project has established 10 service stations in poverty-stricken areas of China and treated over 15,000 patients. The project has also arranged for medical personnel f r om these stations to undergo training for one to three months at the Prince of Wales Hospital. So far about 200 trainees have been to Hong Kong for the purpose. Prof. Leung Ping-chung examining a patient (upper right) and operating [lower middle) in remote areas on the mainland 14