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Comprehensive medical services planned for Asian Games

2010-06-10 11:40 WADA


GAGOC holds a press conference on Wednesday (June 9).

Guangzhou, June 9 - The 16th Asian Games, part of the worldwide Olympic movement and governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will offer substantial medical services for delegates from each of the 45 OCA family members attending and participating in the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

According to Hu Bingjie, Deputy Director of Medical Services Department of the Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (GAGOC), in total, there are more than 2,000 medical volunteers in place and around 100 ambulances available to provide safe, efficient and convenient medical services, emergency treatment and ambulance transfer services during Games-time.

An outpatient department will be built up in the Athletes' Village of Asian Games Town with an offering of basic first aid, physiotherapy, biochemical testing and medical imaging to athletes and team officials from October 25 to November 30. Outpatient services will be available from 8am to 11pm, with emergency treatment and ambulance transfer service provided 24 hours a day.

Medical stations will be established in the delegate offices of every delegation representing National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from the 45 countries and regions in Asia, where accredited medical personnel from each delegate are able to attend to their athletes.

In addition, medical stations will be set up in the sub-Athletes' Village in Shanwei, Huadu and Conghua; all competition venues and training venues of the Games and other non-competition venues including the OCA Headquarters Hotel (Garden Hotel), Media Village, Main Media Centre, Technical Officials' Village, ports of entry/departure and the Asian Games Youth Camp.

Currently 35 medical institutions in Guangzhou and three in the co-host cities of Shanwei, Dongguan and Foshan have been named as designated hospitals and they will organise and deploy exclusive "Asian Games Zones" for outpatient, emergency, inpatient treatments and consultation services.

Mr Hu also said that efforts have been made to monitor every link of the food production and supply chain, including planting and breeding, processing, catering as well as entry and exit. He emphasised that a "dynamic monitoring system" is in place for Asian Games food from farmland to restaurants. Meanwhile, Games' organisers have enhanced sanitary inspection of drinking water across Guangzhou and co-host cities.

Mr Hu said that Guangzhou city mangers will closely watch all potential epidemics in China and internationally as medical authorities have put Games-related personnel under health and symptom surveillance and conducted epidemiological analysis of people with contagious diseases or suspected cases. He added that efforts have also been made to cleanse pest breeding sites and control the vector density across the city, especially at Asian Games venues and the Asian Games Town.

Mr Hu explained that more than 500 sanitary inspection and disease control professionals in Guangzhou have formed 58 venue-based public health teams that will monitor food, drinking water, public-place sanitation and indoor air quality at Games venues to prevent and control contagious diseases and vectors as well as implementing smoking control policies and handling any potential public health incidents at Games venues.

Local authorities have also set up seven municipal-level health emergency teams and several district (county) level health emergency teams that will respond to emergency incidents around the clock during the Games with detailed planning for any possible event such as contagious diseases, food poisoning incidents, nuclear/radiation accidents and terrorist attacks using chemical or biological weapons.

(Wang Lei)

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