Worldwide, 5 billion people lack access to safe, affordable, timely surgery. Many of them live in developing countries where healthcare infrastructure is limited or non-existent, or where there’s a shortage of trained healthcare providers. Fortunately, more than 50% of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of a coast — which is why Mercy Ships uses modern hospital ships to bring world-class volunteer medical professionals directly to the places they’re needed most.
Speaker Dr John Rhodes & Iris Rhodes - Mercy Ships
Wed, Feb 12th 2020 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Dr Rhodes is a retired GP from Riddlesden and has done work on Mercy Ships. He gave a presentation along with his wife Iris about the ship. -------- Speaker Finder Alan Morrell, Visitors Host, Grace and Banners Barry Smith, Cash Desk John Barrow
Mercy Ships is a faith-based international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need.
Their ships are the most efficient way to bring a state-of-the-art hospital to regions where clean water, electricity, and medical facilities and personnel are limited or non-existent. Instead of trying to build the facilities needed to bring life-changing surgeries to ports around the world, they can provide a safe, stable, fully outfitted hospital ship to help change the odds for thousands of people in need.
They also train local healthcare providers and improve medical infrastructure and even stock our ships with a supply of vehicles so they can reach remote areas!
John showed a short video about Mercy Ships which can be viewed here: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWL4MujgWRw
Currently, the Africa Mercy is the only ship in service. It is
the largest charity-run hospital ship in the world, with greater
capacity than all their previous ships combined. It contains five
operating rooms, a four-bed recovery area, intensive care for up to five
patients, and 80 ward beds. The Africa Mercy houses about 400 volunteer crew members from up to 40 nations. It is currently 40 year-old and costs £3.5 million a year to run even though all the staff from doctors, nurses and all the other crew are all unpaid volunteers. They pay their own costs to get to the ship and even pay for their board. However, there is a second ship currently being built which has been jointly financed by Mercy Ships and Rotary. This new ship The Global Mercy is expected to be ready in 14 months.
When a decision is made to visit a country a 5-year programme of engagement is produced. In year 1 the protocol is established, year 2 sees a survey of the needs produced, year 3 is the actual surgery when the ship is in port for about 10 months, year 4 concentrates on education and year 5 is a review of how it all went.
For more information on Mercy Ships please visit their website Mercy Ships
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