Background

Cambodia has a population of around 14 million people. 35% of the population is living below the poverty line. 81% is living in rural areas. It has a labor force of 7 million people who are mainly living from agriculture (75%) but are only producing 31% of the GDP. Other industries include the flourishing garment industry (350,000 people and 70% of Cambodia's exports) and tourism to the popular Angkor Wat temple in Siem Riep (677,000 visitors in 2005) and to the Phnom Penh Capital City (2 million tourists per year) .

Health Care in Cambodia has struggled to regain itself after the country was liberated from the Khmer Rouge control in 1979. At that time, there were no doctors or nurses, no medical equipment, no textbooks, laboratory facilities or any other essentials. Retraining of medical personnel began by using recovered hand-written notes from the pre-1975 medical classes. Training involved copying the notes verbatim in a situation where paper, pens, pencils and everything else, especially money, was in short supply. Even today, routine one-year training of midwives includes no clinical experience . During 1994-96 the Ministry of Health, with international support, developed an overall plan for renewal of the Cambodian health care system. With substantial international support and assistance, training modules are being written, some facilities are being built and/or renovated, medicines are being provided, and other work is being done. Nevertheless, dangerously inadequate facilities and incompetent and inappropriate practices still pervade the health care system, especially with regard to the poor. In view of this the Emergency Services system is limited and despatch systems are very uncommon