WATCH ABOVE: The Red Cross mobile hospital can help a community of 50,000 people and up to 200 people a day. Canada is also sending more military resources to the quake-ravaged Nepal. Lama Nicolas has more on the Canadian relief effort.
TORONTO — The contents of a Mississauga warehouse is making its way to the other side of the world to be set up as an emergency field hospital in Nepal to help victims of last weekend’s devastating earthquake.
Box by box, the equipment that will bring badly needed relief is being packed up and shipped out. The mobile Emergency Response Unit and a team of medical workers are set for departure Tuesday and Wednesday.
The ERU will have 120 beds. It will operate as a fully equipped hospital, including facilities to perform surgical procedures. The surgical unit will be able to treat as many as 200 people per day.
The Canadian Red Cross website states the ERU can be “fully self-sufficient for one month, and operate for up to four months with a multidisciplinary team of 10 to 20 aid workers. Within 12 hours after arrival, a Health ERU can start providing health care services, including mother and child care, surgery, community health and psychosocial first aid.”
The ERU’s medical team was in Ottawa ahead of departure, briefing with the federal government. The mobile hospital is expected to arrive in Nepal by Friday.
“We expect a bit of chaos over there,” said Sylvain Couture, a Red Cross physician headed overseas. “But we hope to make it less chaotic.”
The Canadian Red Cross is appealing for financial donations for relief efforts. The federal government will be matching donations made by Canadians for Nepal relief until May 25.
Canada initially committed $5 million in aid after the earthquake hit Saturday.
“Canada is also sending an assessment team to Nepal to help and ensure that Canadian assistance goes where it can help as many people as quickly as possible,” said International Development Minister Christian Paradis.
With Files from Lama Nicolas.
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