Response To The Haiti Earthquake
When the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, PIH/ZL resources were in place to deliver aid. In addition to providing care to the hundreds of thousands who fled to Haiti’s Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, ZL established health outposts at four camps for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince. ZL also supported the city’s General Hospital (HUEH) by facilitating the placement of volunteer surgeons, physicians and nurses, and by aiding the hospital’s Haitian leadership. In March 2010, PIH/ZL announced a 3-year, $125 million plan to help Haiti build back better called the Stand With Haiti campaign.
Part of this plan includes the construction of Mirebalais Hospital. This National Teaching and Referral Hospital is one of the first public-sector projects to start in Haiti since the earthquake.
Before January 12, 2010, PIH had been planning to build a new community hospital in Mirebalais. Then the earthquake struck, leaving most of the health facilities in and around Port-au-Prince in ruins, including Haiti’s only public teaching hospital and nursing school. Responding to an urgent appeal from the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), quickly scaled up plans.
Less than six months after the earthquake, the MSPP and PIH/ZL broke ground not for a community hospital but for a world-class national referral hospital and teaching center.
When the hospital opens its doors in early 2013, the main medical campus will encompass seven buildings offering a level of care never before available at a public hospital in Haiti. And at a time when Haiti desperately needs skilled professionals, Mirebalais Hospital will provide high-quality education for the next generation of Haitian nurses, medical students, and resident physicians.
Read more about this topic: Partners In Health
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