Wednesday, September 11, 2019
By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
A STATE-of-the-art field hospital on Grand Bahama was set to become operational yesterday to provide healthcare services in Freeport while Rand Memorial Hospital closes down and undergoes sanitisation and decontamination.
Hospital Administrator Sharon Williams told The Tribune the field hospital would provide the same services that RMH offers to patients. The field hospital was implemented in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, Public Hospitals Authority and Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organisation.
As Hurricane Dorian battered Grand Bahama for more than two days, RMH was flooded with storm surge.
“We are going to have to go down at Rand, so we can have the place totally sanitised before we return services and make the repairs needed to be done,” Ms Williams said on Monday.
“But we do need to get our field hospital up and running, transfer everything out of there (RMH) and then begin the restoration process.”
Kelly Sutter, of Samaritan’s Purse, said the organisation is setting up a tier two hospital across from RMH to take pressure off the hospital and staff.
“There’s a lot of water damage and they need to close their doors, refurbish, rebuild and the staff needs to regroup and take care of their families and homes,” she said.
Officials said they hoped the field hospital set up would conclude on Monday and start seeing patients yesterday. According to Samaritan’s Purse, the field hospital is a 40-bed mobile facility that can receive up to 100 patients daily and features an operating room with capacity for 10 surgeries per day, as well as an obstetrics ward with delivery room.
Comments
gbgal says...
Thank you, thank you! A wonderful donation to our community.
Posted 12 September 2019, 10:54 a.m. Suggest removal
geostorm says...
An excellent organization to donate to with great accountability. Thank you Samaritan's Purse, an organization close to my heart.
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/
Posted 12 September 2019, 12:45 p.m. Suggest removal
joeblow says...
... agreed! In fact, Bahamians should know that there are two ways to donate to Samaritans Purse either directly through their website (must make a call to a US number) or through smileamazon, a percentage of all Amazon purchases will be donated to Samaritans purse (or other charities of the purchasers choosing).
Posted 12 September 2019, 3:11 p.m. Suggest removal
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