by Jemini Pandya in Bhuj
A Red Cross field hospital is now up
and running in the devastated Indian town of Bhuj, providing essential
medical care to hundreds of people injured in last week's earthquake. The
hospital, with 400 beds, an out-patients department and a four-bed operating
theatre, is one of the largest field hospitals ever deployed by the International
Federation.
Lalan Chauhan, a 35-year-old search and rescue volunteer from Uttar Pradesh, was the very first patient. He was suffering from stomach pains after four days of helping to rescue people still buried under the huge piles of rubble. Chauhan had heard by word of mouth that the Red Cross was setting up a hospital in the town. Armed with the right medication, he was soon on his way home.
For the past week, the injured and the ill have either had to be taken to larger cities in the devastated state of Gujarat, or have been treated on the streets by the town's remaining medical staff. Bhuj, which was at the epicentre of the earthquake, lost all three of its hospitals.
Installed within 48 hours of landing at Bhuj airfield, the Red Cross field hospital is part of package of emergency relief provided by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"There is a great need for this hospital," says Dr Jayraman Gandhimathi, relief and health coordinator for the Indian Red Cross in Bhuj. "In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, doctors in the town had to provide urgent, critical care. Now, we can provide post-operative care, especially for those who have infections."
The field hospital - largely funded by ECHO with four million Swiss francs - has been set up by the Norwegian and Finnish Red Cross. It comprises two theatres with four operating tables and an out-patient service. About 20 Indian nurses and six Indian doctors will work alongside doctors, surgeons and nurses from the two Red Cross Societies.
Meanwhile, the Federation is making efforts to defuse unfounded rumours concerning the risks of epidemics in the affected area. "We are concerned that unnecessary alarm is being created among the disaster-affected population by reports that decomposing bodies contribute to the spread of disease. This is not true," said Dr. Hakan Sandbladh, emergency health coordinator at the International Federation's Secretariat in Geneva.
"Normal healthy people killed in an earthquake who do not have communicable diseases do not pose any threat to public health. We have not seen any disease outbreaks as a result of this factor in recent earthquakes such as El Salvador or Turkey.
"Poor quality water is of much greater concern and we are now augmenting the local supply with significant quantities of good quality drinking water. We are working closely with the Indian Red Cross and the local authorities to see if we can do more to help improve the local water supply," said Dr. Sandbladh.
Purified water for the hospital is being provided by a water and sanitation team from the German Red Cross which has installed equipment that has the capacity to process 200,000 litres per day.
The field hospital will operate initially for two months and could continue, if needed, for longer. An additional mobile clinic run by the Japanese Red Cross is operational in Sukhpur, a village 11 kilometres from Bhuj.