AmeriCares has opened a second field hospital in Sichuan Province — in Wenchuan County, which was the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 69,000 people and left approximately 5 million homeless.
The new hospital is located on the site of the former Xuankou Township Hospital, which received severe structural damage during the quake. Currently, medical personnel at the hospital are seeing anywhere between 60-70 outpatients a day.
Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares that while international attention turns to the Olympic Games in Beijing, AmeriCares staff and partners on the ground remain fully committed to supporting the recovery efforts and ongoing health care needs in the most affected regions throughout Sichuan province.
The new hospital will provide both inpatient and outpatient services and includes operating and emergency rooms as well as maternity and immunization facilities. The Xuankou field hospital follows the construction of a similar field hospital in Qingchuan, an area where 250,000 residents lost their only medical clinic after the initial earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. The field hospital in Qingchuan is fully operational, and medical personnel there are treating about 130 outpatients daily. AmeriCares also recently purchased an ambulance for the Qingchuan facility to aid in the ongoing treatment of families in the devastated area.
AmeriCares was one of the first private relief organizations to deliver aid to Chengdu, the capital of the hard-hit Sichuan Province, delivering an initial supply of medicines on May 22 and providing a shipment of their critically needed medical supplies, including anesthetics and nutritionals for diabetics to the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital in Chengdu.
