ABOUT one thousand people have been treated over the past two weeks and given expert medical advice from a team of international doctors from the Marine Reach Ministries.
They travelled from as far as Lautoka and Nadi to Nagado Village where the team had been based for the past week.
Marine Reach Ministries co-ordinator Bjarte Dyrik Havgstredt said the group had been providing medical services in the country over the past 12 years.
“We go to remote areas providing primary health services and right now we have a team of primary and dental experts along with nurses.
“There are about 20 of them here and for the past week or so we’ve treated more than 500 people and we expect a larger group in the coming days.
“Some of the things that we observed is that a lot of the rural people do a lot of hard labour and their injuries are related to that kind of work.
“Most of them have back injuries, muscle and tissue injuries.”
He said the team would make referrals to local doctors before departing the country.
Nagado Village headman Josaia Degei said villagers were grateful to the team for visiting the village.
“This is a first for the village,” he said.
“We are happy and very grateful to the team for taking time to come to us and offer these services.”
Another villager Vereniki Sagadra said for some, not having to spend $30 on a vehicle to the Nadi Hospital was money well saved.
“When there is an emergency case, we usually spend that much to go right to Nadi but because they were here for more than a week we were able to just consult them for help,” he said.
