British biological medicine graduate Joshua Cooper has come to Guadalajara to work as a volunteer in the Cruz Verde (Green Cross) Zapopan through a placement with Global Volunteers. Cooper describes the Doctors at the Green Cross as “hard working and compassionate.” Despite the lack of funding and resources available to the Green Cross, the patient care is noted by Cooper as an “improvement on the hospitals throughout the United Kingdom.”
The volume of patients in need of health care throughout metro Guadalajara is staggering. “The lower quality of life causing more emergencies” and adding to problems such as community acquired pneumonia, said Cooper. The lack of doctors and quantity of patients means the presence of medical volunteers is greatly appreciated. While working at the hospital Cooper has experienced lines of patients up to one mile long. Individuals come suffering from stab wounds and gunshots — more casualties than Cooper has “ever before encountered” with patients unwilling to discuss how they have come to have these injuries in fear of repercussions.
While the health care in the UK is fortunate to have new technology Cooper also noted the calm patient reaction to diagnosis. Despite the severity of condition he was shocked by the “acceptance of diagnosis and treatment” and “lack of public emotion in comparison to the panic in hospitals throughout the UK.”The Cruz Verde (Green Cross) is a municipally run emergency medical system in the metropolitan Guadalajara area that reinforces the work of the Red Cross, an institution that receives all of its funding from private sources.
The Green Cross operates clinics, often attached to municipal offices, but also dispatches ambulances and paramedics to the scenes of accidents.
Surprisingly, Green Cross paramedics can be seen cycling to accidents in locations where ambulances find it hard to reach.
Green Cross ambulances and personnel are usually present at mass gatherings, such as musical events and carnivals, and are on call in case of any disaster, including major fires or an earthquake.
Although Green Cross clinics can be basic, the attention given to patients is thorough. According to one staffer, the most common patients require stitches for open wounds or treatment for broken bones from traffic accidents – in particular riders who had fallen off their motorbikes.
All treatment at Green Cross clinics is free to the public.