beyondBeijing2008.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The cavalry has arrived in many ways, in terms of the medical care here. More supplies are coming in every day. There are dozens of facilities around Port-au-Prince that are providing medical care, and the hospitals have been functioning more and more.

The biggest problem is coordination between various places. It’s haphazard, confused and communication is extraordinarily difficult. Doctors at each hospital don’t know which other hospitals have space. Some places will be swamped with people who need severe interventions like amputations or more complicated surgery, and the places won’t have the capability to offer it. Other hospitals that do have these capabilities end up getting enormous numbers of people who just have simple bruises. 

SLIDESHOW: Haiti earthquake

At a clinic I was in on Tuesday, I saw a man who had a fractured back that couldn’t be helped. The hospital managed to make contact with another facility, which is not easy in Haiti. They took him to the other hospital, but by that time all the beds were full. They then had to take him back through very dangerous, pothole-filled streets to the original clinic.

The medical groups are trying to organize some kind of system to coordinate this kind of care, but the difficulties are overwhelming.

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