Malaysian Rescue Teams Set Up Hospital, Reach Remote Villages

YOGYAKARTA, June 1 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian rescue teams have treated more that 1,000 victims in less than 24 hours since arriving at the Bantul province here, which was devastated by earthquake last Saturday.
Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Zainal Abidin Mohamed Zain said the teams comprising 270 members were now treating the injured victims as the search and rescue operation was almost over.
Relief workers find difficulty in reaching remote villagers in the hilly terrain, he told Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X when he and the Special Malaysian Disaster Relief and Recue Team (SMART) paid a courtesy call on him here Wednesday night.
Zainal Abidin said the Malaysian team concentrated in helping five remote villages in the Bantul District as well as setting up a field hospital at Jodog and a mobile hospital.
The field hospital equipped with an operating theater and an x-ray will be manned by a 70 member Malaysian armed forces medical team.
He said the Malaysian teams had distributed 2,000 blankets to the victims at makeshift tents made from plastics and clothes.
The Malaysian teams will be stationed here for three months to treat victims especially those who fractured their bones, he said.
Sri Sultan Hamengku thanked the Malaysian government and its people for rendering quick assistance to the province.
He said SMART and the Malaysian Medical students who stayed on had eased the burden of doctors at the hospitals in attending to the injured victims.
"I thank the Malaysians, the people of Yogyakarta appreciate your help," he said, adding that the medicines brought by the teams was also a great help.
He said the hospitals here equipped with only 3,000 beds could not cope with the more than 8,000 people who fractured their bones.
Sri Sultan Hamengku said the district administrators had made use of the helicopters to drop food and basic essentials at the villages once in every three days.
The Indonesian Social Ministry put the death toll so far at 6,234, more than 33,000 seriously injured and 13,000 slightly injured.