In the "worst of the worst locations in the world," Médècins sans Frontières (MSF) /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) races against time to move medical supplies and set up hospitals.
”This organization’s claim to fame is getting to the needy quickly and with astounding logistical capability,” says Joni Guptill, the Dal graduate who is the President of MSF Canada. A family physician in Halifax, she has been monitoring the situation in Haiti closely.
And yet the circumstances after last week's earthquake are challenging even for this experienced NGO.
“Our biggest concern at the moment is getting timely surgical care to the injured and treatment to those with infected wounds,” says Dr. Guptill (MD ’81). “Getting supplies is another immediate priority.”
Well-publicized difficulties for aid organizations have included the diversion of some aircraft from the airport in Haiti, including a number of MSF flights.
“The problem we have encountered is getting our supplies landed and then getting them stored and then moving them to the widely distributed sites we’re now working from,” she says.
Despite the frustrations and complications, MSF is expanding operations and seeing some progress—they’ve even worked through a frightening aftershock of 5.9 magnitude.
When the earthquake struck, there were 30 MSF ‘ex-pats’ and 800 national staff engaged in providing health care. Since then, MSF has managed to get an additional 40 tonnes of material and 130 staff on the ground.
“We had two hospitals that we were running already, one was a trauma hospital and another was a maternity hospital that was doing up to 1,500 deliveries per month. As well, we were running a medical clinic,” says Dr. Guptill.
The existing trauma and maternity hospitals proved useful for continued operations, and the group has now expanded outside Port-au-Prince into Leogane and Carrefour.
They’re expecting a field hospital, once fully set up, will expand their capacity.
“The field hospital finally arrived after many delays. Some of the hospital came via plane and part arrived overland,” she says.
“MSF works in many difficult situations, we go where others cannot or will not go. Our staff are used to working in harsh and challenging environments,” says Dr. Guptill. “There are emotional consequences and we take the emotional wellbeing of our staff very seriously.”
LINKS:
For daily updates from Médècins sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) visit:
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
To reach MSF Canada, visit:
http://www.msf.ca
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