At the request of the Jamaican Ministry of Health, Heart to Heart International (HHI) deployed an Emergency Medical Team on November 9 to respond to the needs in Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa.
These ten additional team members join the HHI assessment team of six who have been in Jamaica system since October 31, coordinating with partners and government officials and surveying the devastation on the Jamaican health system.
The new team members are from multiple states across the United States, including Kansas, Missouri, California, Georgia, Oregon, and Washington.
The Category 5 storm made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, Oct. 28, causing extensive damage, especially on the western portion of the island. In the days since, the team learned that all of Jamaica’s hospitals on the western side of the island have been damaged and those that are operational are suffering from overwhelming numbers of patients and limited staff. Community health clinics are in much the same situation.
The team is expected to set up a clinic in Cambridge, south of Montego Bay, Jamaica in St. James Parish. Of the 22 clinics in St. James Parish, only about seven clinics are operating at all and those are at limited capacity. The need for help from international aid organizations like HHI is critical.
