Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s navy hospital ship Peace Ark Monday took berth at jetty NCT 5 of Chittagong Port to carry out Mission Harmony 2013. The mission would provide free medical services to the local people and conduct academic exchanges with Bangladesh military hospitals till August 25.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, Assistant Chief of Navy Staff Rear Admiral M Saiful Kabir, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jun and Mission Commander of the hospital ship Shen Hao addressed the welcome ceremony of the vessel at 11am.
The information minister, in his speech, said the visit of the hospital ship would strengthen bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and China. “Strengthening relationship between the countries was necessary due to the global scenario of change,” he added.
The Chinese ambassador, in his speech, said the Peace Ark earlier visited Bangladesh in 2010 when 3,213 people had received medical services. “We hope the number of patients will be increased during this visit,” he added.
Bangladesh was one of the eight Asian nations that ‘Peace Ark’ would visit during its four-month trip, which started from June 10 and would end on October 6, 2013. In the past two months, the ship visited Brunei, the Gulf of Aden, the Maldives, Pakistan and India.
According to the officials of the178 meter long and 24 meter wide hospital ship, the ship was equipped with modern medical facilities including 300 beds and 8 operation theatres that have the capacity to carry out 40 major surgeries a day, as many as can be carried out by a large hospital in Beijing.
The hospital ship also had burn ward, bacteria-free ward, ICU, X-ray room, CT room, Doppler Ultrasound room and dental room while there were 102 medical crew including 46 doctors.
The officials of the ship, which sailed from Zhoushan of Zhejiang province on June 10, said their specialty ranges from surgery, internal medicine, gynaecology and ENT to traditional Chinese medicine.
After Chittagong, the ship would sail for Indonesia and Cambodia before returning to China.