Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark visits Tonga as part of Harmony Mission 2023

On July 3, 2023, the Peace Ark, a Chinese naval hospital ship, set off from Zhoushan to perform the Harmony Mission 2023 program, which involved visiting Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste. On July 28, 2023, it arrived at the port of Nuku'alofa in Tonga and left on August 4.

This is Peace Ark's third visit to Tonga on Harmony Missions, the others happening in 2014 and 2018 (Record ID #37762 and #65343 respectively).

The medical team carried out medical procedures, including diagnosis, treatment, and surgery together with Tongan medical personnel.

Detachments and helicopters were sent to outlying islands and villages and treatment was also carried out on the ship itself. 5,800 medical services were performed on the ship and 6,895 in total, including 39 surgeries.

Eight groups of medical experts collaborated with the Vaiola Hospital in Nukualofa and with three village-level health clinics: Mua, Vaini, and Nukunuku.

Eight medical officers went to the island of Eua via ambulance helicopter, delivering essential services to 333 villagers. 103 people had complete physical exams. The team consisted of 126 members in 16 different clinical and auxiliary departments.

Between them, the doctors covered areas including pediatrics, ophthalmology, dermatology, osteology, stomatology, and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

They are from China's Naval Medical University, Joint Logistic Support Force and the navy under the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

The Health Service and Cultural Friendship Detachment went to local primary and secondary schools for health education and to perform cultural exchanges.

The commander of the mission met with Tongan royalty and with civil and military officials and visited military facilities, medical institutions and Chinese-funded enterprises in the country.

At Tonga's Masefield Naval Base, Peace Ark conducted operational exchanges with 21 Tongan officers and soldiers, focusing on self-rescue and mutual aid techniques including CPR, endotracheal intubation, and the use of AEDs. Naval experts provided training sessions in wounded-rescue techniques for Tongan navy members.

In the water outside the port, the navies held joint exercises in the waters outside Nuku'alofa, focusing on formation movement, communication exercises, and three-dimensional search and rescue. Eleven experts were sent to Vaiola Hospital twice for a demonstration of battlefield first-aid technology.

Peace Ark is a type 920 hospital ship that was commissioned in 2008 and has visited 43 countries and regions since.

It has multiple operating rooms and nursing stations with over 300 beds in total as well as a blood bank and can handle up to 1,000 patients at a time.

It has other state-of-the-art medical facilities as well, like CT, DR, color Doppler ultrasonography, gastrointestinal endoscopy, automatic biochemical analyzers, multifunctional monitors, ventilators, and autoclave cabinets, making up 2,600 sets of medical devices of about 250 different types in total.

It comes equipped with a heliambulance for emergency rescues as well.