DUBAI // Volunteer doctors are badly needed for a UAE field hospital in Nepal to help treat tens of thousands of patients after the earthquakes that killed more than 8,500 people.
A third Emirati medical team is to arrive this week, taking the total number of people who have flown from Dubai to 40.
A field hospital operated by volunteers from the UAE and Nepal opened in Kathmandu on Thursday. The 15-bed unit cares for the young and elderly, and has a surgery, intensive-care unit, pharmacy, laboratory and X-ray department.
The volunteer programme is part of the partnership between the Zayed Giving Initiative, Saudi-German Hospital, Dar Al Ber Society and Kathmandu Teaching Hospital.
Heart surgeon Dr Adel Al Shamry, who leads the Emiratis, said: “We’re sending a combined team of about 20 doctors, nurses and paramedics, and an outreach team to work in the more remote areas.
“The field hospital is supporting the teaching hospital in Kathmandu and within a week it will be ready to be deployed to a wider area where it is most needed.”
Dr Al Shamry said the UAE teams would work at three sites – the hospital, the field hospital and a mobile clinic.
Most of the patients are arriving from villages and cities where healthcare centres are inoperable or cut off by damaged roads.
Medical support from the UAE is expected to continue for the next four to six months after the magnitude-7.8 quake on April 25. A second quake last Tuesday, of magnitude 7.3, killed another 117 and injured 2,800.
The UAE has sent 95 lorryloads of urgent humanitarian aid to those displaced, in coordination with its embassy in India and the Nepalese Red Cross.
”Medical teams of UAE and Nepalese volunteers will give priority to urgent situations, then record the injured and sick who require follow-up visits from doctors who are specialising in the field hospital,” said Dr Reem Osman, executive director of the Saudi-German Hospital.
“Our teams are working with the ambulance system to collect patients and transfer them to either the university hospital or the field hospital. Some roads are OK and the access is good. Others are not so easy.
“Every week we are sending extra teams based on requirements. We need heart doctors, general surgeons and those with experience working in intensive-care units.
“Now we need more staff to volunteer. We can sponsor travel and accommodation, particularly for paediatricians, orthopaedic and critical-care surgeons.”
Since launching in 2002, the Zayed Giving Initiative has gained a wealth of experience in running field hospitals, contributing to the relief of natural disasters in Egypt, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Indonesia, Tanzania and Bosnia.
“The volunteer medical team will be able to accomplish the humanitarian mission in Nepal successfully thanks to the good cooperation and coordination of the competent authorities, led by Kathmandu University Hospital,” said Abdullah Ali bin Zayed, the Dar Al Ber Society’s executive director.
“It has been our main partner on the scene in Nepal and provided all necessary for the success of the medical team’s work so far.
“These voluntary efforts have had a great response from officials and families and resonated in the hearts of those affected.”
But the relief effort is not without risk, with fears of further aftershocks and unstable buildings.
Professionals wishing to take part are asked to send in their CVs to the Zayed Giving Initiative at zayedgiving@gmail.com.
Costs of flights, accommodation and training will be covered for suitable applicants.
nwebster@thenational.ae