Sopley: medical services for refugees.

Abstract

The Home Office delegated overall administrative responsibility for the camp to the British Council for Aid to Refugees (BCAR), and asked the British Red Cross Society (BRCS) to co-ordinate medical and nursing input. The National Health Service was expected to provide support at the expense of locally agreed priorities, and without any formal management control. Attempts to plan medical services were frustrated by lack of information. The numbers of refugees, dates of arrival, and ports of entry were not confirmed until a few hours before the event, and the figures were invariably incorrect. As the refugees had been guaranteed entry to Britain, we did not know whether the usual port health clearance procedures would apply. From the television news we learnt that the refugees had had a medical screening in Hong Kong, but no details of these health checks were available. In view of these uncertainties a medical examination for all the refugees was considered necessary soon after their arrival at Sopley. As tuberculosis was likely to present the major personal and public health hazard, the mobile mass radiography unit was booked to attend the camp each day after a group of refugees had arrived. All staff working at the camp were offered a Heaf test and polio vaccination, and all consultants and general practitioners in the area received a letter drawing to their attention the major diseases endemic in South-east Asia.