Haiti Health Cluster Bulletin No 2 - 21 January 2010
Highlights
- Assessments of Brazilian, French and Russian field hospitals, and Petit Goave hospital were completed.
- 10 teams are in the process of completing rapid needs assessments on areas such as water and sanitation, health, food, shelter and nutrition.
- Requests for additional surgical assistance.
- Coordination measures include the compilation of a list showing "who does what, where."
ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING
Hospital assessments
On 20 January, PAHO, the US Department of Health and Human Services and MINUSTAH visited three field hospitals:
- Brazilian #1 Field Hospital: Located near the US embassy inside Camp Charlie, where the Brazilian Battalion is stationed (GPS 18Q YF 90348 53792). They are planning to stay for 21 days. They have 25 beds with one operating room and resources to perform neuro, orthopaedic, maxial-facial and general surgery. They are able to hold patients for up to 48 hours following surgery and the 24 hour surge capacity is 250 patients. They have an oxygen plant. They have armed guards and a walled perimeter.
- Russian Field Hospital: Located in the Police Academy in Route des Frères (GPS 18Q YF 90354 50526). They have one full operating room, one orthopaedic operating room, and one out-patient procedure room. Twenty patients have been operated on, but they have no capacity for follow-up care. There are three general and orthopaedic surgeons, three anaesthesiologists, one paediatrician, one psychiatrist and one general practitioner.
- French Field Hospital: Located in the Lycee Francais, Cartier Bourdon (GPS 18Q YF 84093 51918). They have 60-70 beds with a surge capacity of 200 per day and perform 8-10 surgeries daily. Between 1 and 4 patients are air evacuated each day to Martinique. They have the capacity to perform general surgery as young as 3 years old, and have orthopaedic and obstetric surgery. They have an X-ray, an ultrasound and fluoroscopy. They have a water purifier (they use 8-10 cubic meters a day) and fairly sophisticated sterilization capacity.
A water and sanitation assessment was conducted at the general hospital today. Priority interventions to improve water quality and sanitation have been discussed with partners such as Oxfam. Contacts have been established with health and water and sanitation partners to remove medical waste from hospitals and wherever health care is being provided. This is a high priority. PAHO/WHO has been approached by partners for water and sanitation equipment support, including 120 liter square containers to provide safe water in hospitals and chlorine for disinfection.
Rapid Needs Assessment (IRA)
The IRA is a multi-sectoral tool and is comprised of sections related water and sanitation, health, food, shelter and nutrition. The questionnaire was reviewed by the cluster sub-group to agree on the wording. The aim is to carry out a field test and training of the assessment teams on 21 January and to begin the assessments on 23 January.
There will be 10 teams that will attempt to complete all the assessments in 3 days.
A joint inter-agency assessment (PAHO, UNICEF, WFP, IOM) was carried out in Petit Goave hospital on 20 January.
Health priority needs/gaps
According to the MOH there is currently a greater need for nurses than doctors. In addition, maternal care remains a concern.
There is a request for additional surgical assistance in Les Cayes (in the Immaculate Conception Hospital). There is currently only one surgeon on staff and 300 patients needing surgery.
The Hospital Le Bon Samaritain in Jimani, Dominican Republic, has more than 200 patients and requires help to be able to provide health services.
Due to the aftershock on 21 January, some health facilities evacuated patients to the outdoors. As a result, requests for assistance came in for food, water and shelter.
Filling gaps
- The USNS Comfort hospital ship arrived on 20 January and is ready to receive patients. All patients will be referred through HUEH only.
- UNFPA is making reproductive health kits available to health agencies and is offering condoms for staff and patients.
- The German Cooperation is supplying of food and water treatment capabilities to Leogane.
- The Turkish Medical Rescue Team has field hospitals.
- Airline Ambassadors can provide transport of medical supplies and personnel from the USA to Port-au-Prince.
- The Clinton Foundation can provide transport from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince and the Central Plateau.
- Eight more field hospitals are arriving to the country.
- Help Aid is looking into elderly population issues.
- The Nutrition Cluster had its first meeting 20 January and will be working in the following aspects:
- Protection and support for women who are breastfeeding.
- Monitoring of breast-milk substitutes and other milk products coming to the country.
- Provision of breast-milk substitutes and other milk products.
- Complementary feeding of children above six months.
- Prevention of malnutrition.
- Treatment of severe acute malnutrition.
- Since the 13th of January, PROMESS, Haiti’s main pharmaceutical storage and distribution facility managed by PAHO/WHO, has provided medicines and medical supplies for free to 50 organisations and NGOs working in hospitals and clinics. Each day the number of requests increases.
COORDINATION
The Health Cluster meets daily at 4.00 pm in the OCHA Tent #1, Logbase. There is a general session followed by a division into subgroups. A third subgroup on “mobile health teams” was created on 20 January to complement the two other groups (“hospitals” and “public health assessment”). This enables more specific issues to be discussed within the hour timeframe. The need for a “medicines and supplies” subgroup and a “disease surveillance” subgroup has been expressed.
The following organisations participated on 20 January: F.I.R.S.T., Finish Red Cross, ECHO, B-FAST, Hope International, Turkish Medical Rescue, UNFPA, Project Hope, Clinton Foundation, Airline Ambassadors, PSI, Belgium First Aid, UNICEF, Brazilian Medical mission, Israel, USAID, Humanity First, German Mission, Health Empowering Humanity, French Cooperation, Spanish for International Cooperation, Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministry, Mennonite Central Committee, Humanity First, AMURT-EL, Mission of Hope Haiti One, Amazon Expeditions, International Action Ties, PSI/Haiti, Help Age International, Association des Hôpitaux Prives d’Haiti, Rescue Net International, Hôpital France and MSF.
- There was a request to have a liaison person between the US armed forces and the Health Cluster.
- In order improve coordination, a list of who does what, where has been compiled.
- The Nutrition Cluster has been formed and is now meeting daily at 9am, in the UNICEF tent at MINUSTAH (conclusions of this meeting in the section GAPS FILLING).
IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEALTH MESSAGES
- The media company Internews is facilitating the diffusion of information, including public health messages, to the radio stations working in the country.
- Violence against women is reported from temporary camps.
- There is concern about unaccompanied minors, both their discharge from hospitals as well as their transport out of the country. The Child Protection Cluster, activated on 20 January, is addressing these concerns.
Contacts
Pan American Health Organization, Emergency Operations Center, Washington DC eoc@paho.org
Health Cluster in Haiti hai.clustersante@paho.org
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