Medical Service in Cambodia

medical service with the Korean Community for Medical Service in Cambodia (KCSC), an organization affiliated with the Soonchun-hyang Medical Center. KCSC has been providing medical service in Cambodia for ten years. To mark the organization's 10th anniversary, service with the quality of a medium-sized hospital was provided by a group of Korean staff including professors from 12 departments as well as professor Yongbae Kim of the Plastic Surgery Department, residents, 35 church volunteers, Cambodian staff-including 20 physicians , and Koreans living in Cambodia (Fig. 1). An important factor contributing to the high quality of the service provided was the active participation of local Cambodian physicians who had been trained at Soonchunhyang Hospital. On our arrival in Cambodia, we struggled with feeling sticky because the humidity was much higher than what Koreans are accustomed to at home. After moving all the medical equipment to our lodging area, it was late, but we had a meeting to review our medical service schedule. Because almost one thousand patients were to receive treatment, after discussing methods for keeping order and guiding patients and cooperating with local Koreans, we were finally able to go to bed after midnight (Fig. 2). Early in the morning of the second day, we departed with our medical equipment for Kampong Speu Referral Hospital, which was located 50 km south of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We had to put in a huge effort to deliver the medical equipment because we prepared fifty bags of equipment , each three times the size of an adult for the three day-service. Kampong Speu Referral Hospital was similar to the provincial hospitals of Gyeonggi province (the suburbs of Seoul), and the level of this hospital was excellent in Cambodia. Although the distance was not far, it took two hours to arrive there because of poor road conditions. The hospital was in a festive mood, like a field day. The Cambodian and Korean flags were raised. A governor welcomed us. It was like a marketplace because many people were already queued up outside of the hospital gate to see the doctor, and there were street vendors as well. The weather was still oppressively humid, but the patients stayed in line with the bread and water provided by the medical team in order not to lose their turns (Fig. 3). However, their faces were happy. It was a blessing that the rural residents were …