Last Updated on May 29, 2021, 10:31 AM AST by Anthony Morris
Roseau: With the hurricane season of 2021 fast approaching, the government of Dominica is setting up a forty-bed hospital at the Botanical Gardens.
This hospital is the result of a donation from the US Embassy to the government and people of Dominica and is expected to provide additional assistance in the event of a disaster.
Program Officer at the Office of Disaster Management, Mandella Christian, stated that they could secure the donation through the efforts of the ODM, while raising resources for the hurricane season.
“Through the resource mobilization efforts of the Office of Disaster Management, we have been able to secure this generous donation from a field medical facility of the US government, facilitated by the military liaison office of the US Embassy for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean,” Christian explained.
He described the facility as an ‘independent unit’ due to its many facilities, including forty beds, a 70 KVA generator, a storage and distribution system for water purification, air conditioning, laundry facilities, showers and chemical toilets.
Christian noted that the facility is temporary as it is mobile and can be set up at any convenient location where immediate medical care is required.
“The purpose of this facility is not to be a permanent installation. It is intended to be erected according to the need as prescribed by the Ministry of Health. It can be erected anywhere on the island as soon as there is an extensive “It will be set up to provide medical care and support to an affected population,” Christian added.
While the facility is being set up, the training of relevant stakeholders in the handling and preparation of the facility will continue simultaneously.
“As part of the donation, the US government would have sent an instructor from the company that designed and built the facility. The instructor is, therefore, training participants from various stakeholders. So we have participants from the Department of Health, the office of Disaster Management, the fire and ambulance service and the Dominica Cadet Corps, so we are training a group of national technicians to assemble, dismantle and pack the facility and to set up the equipment in the facility. “This training is quite appropriate given what is going on in the world today with the covid-19 pandemic. In the event that our medical facilities, apart from God, are not overwhelmed, we have this backup system that we can knock on,” he further explained.
Christian further expressed his gratitude to the US government for what he will promote according to Dominica’s disaster management efforts.
“We are very grateful for this gift, so on behalf of the government and the people of Dominica, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the US government, the US military liaison office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean for this very generous donation. It will help a lot to support and promote our disaster preparedness and response operations in Dominica,” Christian added.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
