THE HOSPITAL ship USNS Comfort docked at the Kingston Harbour yesterday and is expected to be here for just over a week to provide free medical care for thousands of Jamaicans.
More than 150 surgical procedures are scheduled to be done on the ship, the beneficiaries already pre-determined and pre-screened by the Ministry of Health.
In addition, doctors and nurses from the hospital ship, with assistance from the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, will work from two locations in Kingston and St Andrew to provide primary medical, dental and optical care on a first come, first serve basis.
They will operate from the National Arena from today to April 21 and the Windward Road Health Centre from April 15 to 17. Both locations are scheduled to see approximately 500 persons per day.
The USNS Comfort departs Jamaica on April 24. Its visit is part of a four-month humanitarian and civic assistance deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean.
fully equipped
Operated by the US military sealift command, outside of its military duties, the fully equipped USNS Comfort provides mobile surgical hospital services as well as other medical procedures for various disaster and humanitarian relief effort across the world.
The medical assistance of the US hospital ship comes a week after the US Embassy donated US$10,000 worth of medical supplies and equipment to the Ministry of Health.
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
APR
2011
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