Banda Aceh hospital gets donor help, requests more

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

Almost two months after the Dec. 26 tsunami, Zainoel Abidin General Hospital in Banda Aceh is still facing problems because it lacks laboratory and medical equipment, medicine and personnel, the hospital's vice director said in Banda Aceh, Aceh.

Zainoel Abidin hospital, located on Jl. Tengku Daud Beureuh, is Aceh's biggest state hospital. It was badly damaged in the tsunami, with at least 25 centimeters of mud coating its floors for two weeks after the disaster.

"We are thankful to so many countries, people and organizations who helped us run this hospital after the tsunami. Our hospital now urgently needs lab equipment, medical equipment and personnel as well as medicine," hospital vice director Dr. Cut Maulini told The Jakarta Post in Banda Aceh on Thursday after meeting Yemeni Ambassador to Indonesia Ahmed Salem Saleh Al- Wahishi and some prominent Yemeni businessmen.

Cut expressed gratitude to the government and people of Yemen for helping the hospital become functional again.

"Yemeni companies, especially the Pacific-Inter Link, financed the cleaning and renovation of our rehabilitation ward. Now the ward is fully operational. They even planted trees and grass outside and it looks much better than before," she said.

Ambassador Ahmed, Yemen's biggest conglomerate Hayel Saeed Anam Group's chairman Ali Mohamed Saeed and three other business executives visited Banda Aceh to see how they could contribute to the reconstruction of Aceh.

Dr. Cut expressed hope that other countries would help the hospital as Yemen had.

The hospital, which is four kilometers from the beach, lost 500 of its staff members -- medical and other personnel -- out of 800 members and many patients in the tsunami.

All of the 400-bed hospital's medical equipment was severely damaged when mud and salt water washed through the hospital.

Dr. Cut thanked Indonesian and Australian soldiers, who played a key role in cleaning the hospital. The hospital has survived with the help of help of donors, both domestic and foreign.

"Without medical equipment and medicine, we can't run this hospital. Please help us!" Cut pleaded.