Samaritan’s Purse’s 28-bed COVID-19 inpatient treatment unit will be manned by 30 healthcare professionals from the organization, said David Philips, the organization’s deputy director for international projects.
The 28-bed isolation and treatment unit is expected to arrive in The Bahamas today.
“We’re also sending staff,” he said in an interview with The Nassau Guardian.
“So, there’s going to be 30 staff and those are medical professionals.
“So, we’ll have doctors, we’ll have nurses, as well as all the operational and support staff, so people that do the medical operations side, pharmaceutical side and all the other components, including biomedical technicians, who help to run the facility.
“So, when we come, we’ll come with a full package that includes the medical equipment, the tents, which are actually where the facilities themselves will be housed, all of the doctors and the nurses. We even have the capacity to generate our own power if necessary, and other sources. So, we will need to rely on our partner, PMH (Princess Margaret Hospital), for some things like oxygen, but we don’t want to put a burden on the healthcare system.
“In fact, we’ll bring our own personal protective equipment (PPE) and other things like that so that we’re able to come in and alleviate the burden and provide help in the time of need. Rather than coming in and requiring anything from the system, we want to be a benefit and alleviate that pressure that’s right now happening because of the need.”
The government entered into a partnership with the Christian evangelical disaster relief organization to provide the treatment unit.
“What we’re doing right now is we are finalizing that deployment,” Philips said.
“…And it will come by one of our aircraft, which is a DC-8 cargo and passenger aircraft. And we will be departing from our logistics hub in North Carolina and flying directly into Nassau.
“And the plan is for that to go tomorrow. And so, we will be working alongside the Ministry of Health and others to set up the treatment center there at the Princess Margaret Hospital in the coming days.”
While the field hospital is not expected to provide critical care, Philips said Samaritan’s Purse is flexible and willing to help wherever necessary.
“However that help is needed, we’re open to provide that,” he said.
“We’re flexible in terms of our capacity and we are certainly willing to stand with the people of The Bahamas during this time.
“The specific clinical capacity that’s being deployed was determined in close consultation with the prime minister’s office, with the hospital itself, the Ministry of Health and the authorities on the ground who are dealing with the crisis. So, the package was designed around what was deemed to be the most helpful solution at this moment in time for the problems that are being faced by the healthcare system.
“So, we will continue to be…working right alongside our colleagues there in Nassau to ensure that whatever Samaritan’s Purse is able to do and whatever the national healthcare system needs, we’ll be able to consider that and provide support as needed.”
Philips said the field hospital will be nearly completely self-sufficient so as not to put further strain on the healthcare system.
He said Samaritan’s Purse will also provide support to the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programs in hospitals in an effort to better protect Bahamian healthcare workers from COVID-19 infection.
Samaritan’s Purse set up field hospitals in some of the early epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic as healthcare systems were overwhelmed.
The organization was also one of the most prominent NGOs on the ground in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, providing much-needed support and setting up a field hospital on Grand Bahama.
Philips said Samaritan’s Purse is still providing Dorian assistance, and the ongoing relationship with the government allowed for discussions to be had with respect to assistance in the national fight against COVID.
“A part of the ongoing relationship and commitment to the people of The Bahamas, when this COVID wave really came hard, we were in communication with local authorities and the request and discussion happened,” he said.
“And so, we committed to come down with a COVID response. And so, for us, we have been responding to COVID-19 in a variety of different places.
“Starting about six months ago, we simultaneously deployed two emergency field hospitals – one to New York and one to Cremona, Italy, which at the time were the epicenters of COVID-19.”
The post Samaritan’s Purse providing healthcare staff for COVID fight appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/samaritans-purse-providing-healthcare-staff-for-covid-fight/
No comments:
Post a Comment