each case to provide immediate treatment if possible, and
to refer the patients to the Trust Territories health care
system.
Unfortunately, little has been done to treat and to
follow-up these patients.
Consequently, the BNL medical team BY _
has become the de facto primary health care provider to an
ever expanding group of Marshallese.
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The rationale of the
Marshallese in the BNL program for their claim to the "right
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ere
for all medical care" is their association of practically all getlidnens
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illness with radiation.
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The BNL medical team, because of its frequent surveys has, in the;4 vert aX?
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eyes of the Marshallese, come to represent the U.S. "presence" in LAE yt
the islands.
The BNL Medical Program has, therefore, become the
target of many attacks directed towards the United States agencies
responsible for other programs in the Marshall Islands.
These un-
warranted attacks have, on several occasions, seriously compromised
the goals of the Medical Program.
Two major problems of health
care delivery for all of the Marshallese involve: (a) communications,
and (b) transportation.
To the best of our knowledge, these problems
have not been addressed independently as health care problems.
DISCUSSION
With the slow growth of the medical program and the development of
this matrix of compounding variables, Dr. Burr and Dr.Wyzen requested a position).¢
“f-
paper that would outline for DOE the alternatives for the support of a study of
radiation relatedinjuries in the Marshall Islands.
These options should in-
clude a wide spectrum of alternative programs, keeping in mind the inextricable
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