Foreign aid prioritizes setting up field hospitals in Turkey’s quake-hit area

With search and rescue teams leaving Turkey after a week-long intense work to save lives under the rubble, help from the international community is now focusing on establishing field hospitals in the earthquake-hit region to treat survivors and those injured.

According to the Foreign Ministry, as of Feb. 13, 77 countries were active in the earthquake-hit provinces to support Turkey ‘s efforts to help millions of people affected by the massive earthquakes of Feb, 6 in the Southeastern Anatolia Region.

Upon an official demand from the Turkish government, some of these countries continue their assistance to Turkey by establishing field hospitals in different parts of the earthquake-hit region to recover the thousands of wounded. Among these are Spain, France, Iran, India, Malaysia, Israel, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Belgium and Russia.

France is building a 100-bed capacity field hospital in Adıyaman, one of the cities heavily hit by the tremor. Two planes carrying medical equipment and other equipment needed for building the field hospital, as well as 87 personnel, arrived in Gaziantep on Feb. 13. The medical facility will be able to treat up to 100 patients per day. France also deployed search and rescue teams to Turkey.

Spain is also very active in Turkey since the first days of the disaster. Apart from search and rescue teams who have completed their job, Spain built a field hospital İskenderun, which started its operations on early Feb. 13. Sent by Spain’s International Development Cooperation Agency, the hospital will serve up to 200 patients per day and will be able to conduct surgical procedures. The hospital employs 82 personnel.

 

 

hurriyetdailynews.com