Camp Cockatoo helps Pakistanis

Australian medical teams at work in flood-devastated Pakistan.

Australia's medical task force dispatched to the flood disaster in Pakistan has treated its first patients at an emergency health facility in Kot Addu.

The facility in Pakistan's Punjab province will help up to 200 people per day, the Australian Defence Force estimates.

More than 27,000 people are estimated to be homeless in Kot Addu and more than 250,000 are relying on food assistance while Pakistan recovers from the floods.

The facility, dubbed "Camp Cockatoo", can provide services like those of a general practice, including maternal and children’s health, diagnostic services including x-ray and pathology, pharmacy and preventative health care.

Ronnie Taylor, a Darwin nurse who treated her first patients, said the infectious diseases and paediatric cases she was seeing were what she had expected.

"People seem really happy to see us and there is a huge, huge need here," she said.
AusAID and the Australian Defence Force are working with Pakistani authorities to provide assistance.

AAP