MEDCAP at refugee village DPR/TV/852

A consistent role for some members of the Australian Task Force in Vietnam is the administration of medical and dental aid to the people in villages and hamlets throughout Phuoc Tuy Province. To this end, doctors and dentists with the major units in the area, and in particular the 1st Australian Civil Affairs Unit visit 15 populated centres each week. One of these centres is a refugee village on the outskirts of the Province capital of Baria, nine miles south of the Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat. On this particular medcap the four-man Civil Affairs team was led by Sergeant Jim Osborne of Nollamara, WA. The main function of teams employed on med or dentcaps is to treat complaints of a minor nature. These are usually skin ailments or cases of malnutrition. The more serious cases are diagnosed by the Civil Affairs medical officer, Major Ray Atkinson of Parramatta, NSW, and the patients flown or driven to civilian hospitals at Baria or Vung Tau for treatment or surgery. (Also identified: Captain Murray Taylor; Corporal Paddy Burnan of Perth, WA)