Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark visits Vanuatu as part of Harmony Mission 2023 (linked to records #39362 and #103961)

On July 3, 2023, Peace Ark, a Chinese naval hospital ship set off from a military dock in Zhoushan to perform the Harmony Mission 2023 program, which involved visiting Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste (linked records #103961, #104004, #104005, and #103962).

This is the third time Peace Ark has visited the country, the other times being in 2014 (record #39362) and 2018 (record #107859). Vanuatu is Peace Ark's third stop on the mission, after Kiribati and Tonga. Peace Ark arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu on August 8, 2023, and conducted medical services from August 9 to August 14.

Vanuatu was Peace Ark's third stop on Harmony Mission 2023, after Tonga.

Peace Ark generally stayed in each country it visited in 2023 for seven days, conducting medical procedures, cultural exchanges, and sometimes military training with local armed forces.

In Vanuatu, the Chinese troops on the ship conducted academic exchanges and played a basketball match with Vanuatu's police force. They also visited local schools for health education and cultural exchanges. The ship concluded its visit to Vanuatu at 10 am on August 15 and left for Port Honiara in the Solomon Islands.

During their stay, medical care was offered on the ship and detachments of medical staff were sent to Vila Central Hospital and health centers in communities and villages for joint diagnosis and treatment as well as academic exchange and health education activities.

In total, Peace Ark's team served 6,573 local patients, assisting in 5,597 medical checks, completing 30 operations, and conducting 121 tripartite diagnoses and treatments together with the Chinese medical team in Vanuatu. The medical 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. Peace Ark is a type 920 hospital ship that was commissioned in 2008 and has visited 43 countries and regions since. At 14,300 pounds, it is larger than a typical Chinese destroyer with a displacement of over 10,000 metric tons.

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.