VOA常速英语:俄罗斯船舶为偏远地区提供医疗服务

This isn’t a military deployment.It’s a medical deployment.These doctors are heading out on a 50-day-trip to some of the remote parts of Russia to provide basic medical care.

“I know exactly how people live in the places where we are sailing to. We have 39 settlements and know what situation is there (and) what transport accessibility is there. As a doctor and as a person, I really realize that this is the only way we can provide them with specialist medical care. Because even if a person from those areas gets to ask, there is no guarantee that somebody medic is waiting for them.”

Doctors are not just providing basic medical check-ups, the ship comes with some sophisticated medical equipment. “We try to be most autonomous. We bring ultrasound, our own lab. Last year they managed to bring even an extra machine.”

When the doctors arrive, there are inevitably long lines and long wait. But it is all free from eye exams to ultrasound to medicine. “Oh, we eagerly await the doctors because we have problems here. In our clinic, there is one medic only, no other specialists actually.”

The medical boat costs about 200,000 dollars a year to maintain. But it’s changed the lives of the people who live in this remote area of Russia. “My husband has got diabetes, hypertension and he broke his leg. He uses a lot of medicines, plenty. Somewhere the medicines are prescribed for free. So either the specialists come here or we go to a town.”

The doctors who work on the boat get paid well. But many say they do it for the help they provide as well as a sense of adventure.

“We work probably in the most unique place on the planet. The Great Vasyugan Swamps, which are the lungs of the planet. That’s the endless and wide area with its own nature and people living here. The population density here is so low that you are more likely to meet a bear rather than a human.”

This team will travel about 4,000 kilometers during this trip and most say they’ll sign up again next year.

Kevin Enochs, VOA News, Washington.