This past weekend, AmeriCares, a nonprofit international relief organization, delivered a deployable field hospital to China’s devastated city of Qingchuan, where health concerns remain acute following last months deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The portable, durable 15-bed hospital will serve as the interim Rural Health Center in the Sichuan Basin where the earthquake has killed thousands and left many more injured.

This interim Rural Health Center will provide services to about 150,000 people in the region. Serving as a full service critical treatment center for severe injuries and minor medical procedures, the deployable hospital will also enable long-term follow-up care for the thousands of patients left homeless after the earthquake.

Designed to function in disaster conditions, the hospital consists of adjoining climate-controlled, durable fabric structures, which will stand up to harsh weather in the region and provide a clean, safe environment for patient care. The hospital includes separate rooms for surgery, emergency treatment, a gynecology/labor ward, a laboratory, a radiology unit as well as a 15-bed patient ward for seriously injured and sick victims. AmeriCares also is financing the purchase of patient beds, exam tables, microscopes, X-ray equipment, surgical supplies and other items necessary to completely equip the hospital. With transport and delivery, the value of this initiative is estimated at more than $500,000.

This latest initiative is part of a comprehensive, ongoing effort by AmeriCares to provide relief to survivors of natural disasters around the World. In November 2005, AmeriCares provided a BLU-MED deployable field hospital for disaster relief near Muzaffarabad, the Kashmir capital and epicenter of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. AmeriCares continues to provide medicines and medical supplies as needed in the following months, treating thousands of patients in that BLU-MED hospital.

About BLU-MED Response Systems

BLU-MED Response Systems is America’s Leader in Deployable Medical Facilities. BLU-MED also provides turnkey, portable shelter-based solutions for alternate command centers, temporary housing and base camp requirements. The company offers a full range of medical equipment packages and related support services including vendor managed inventory, field deployment, and training & exercise support.

BLU-MED facilities can be sized and customized to meet a variety of state and local emergency management and public health response requirements. Modular options include medical surge wards, patient treatment including, decontamination, immunization/drug distribution, negative pressure isolation, and field laboratory units. BLU-MED Response Systems is a division of Alaska Structures, Inc., the official mobile field hospital / portable hospital shelter supplier for the US Air Force and US Army. For more information see BLU-MED: Proven in Disaster Response

About AmeriCares:

AmeriCares is a private, nonprofit international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, which delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis around the world. Sine it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $7.5 billion in humanitarian aid to 137 countries. For more information, log onto americares.org/

Full press release available in PDF