ICRC hospital, makeshift but best equipped
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
The parking lot of the Harapan Bangsa soccer stadium in southern Banda Aceh boasts the most complete medical facilities in Aceh today.
Situated in the parking lot is a complex of 20 white tents that make up the Reference Hospital of the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC). A reference hospital acts as a medical knowledge center, providing medical expertise, triage and medical treatment.
The ICRC hospital was set up to ease the burden on Banda Aceh hospitals overwhelmed by tsunami survivors. It is also equipped with facilities that most major hospitals in the province do not have.
The Kodam Sultan Iskandar Muda Military Hospital and the Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, the two main hospitals in Banda Aceh, have referred a number of patients to the ICRC hospital, which opened on Saturday.
The hospital is also treating patients from the Lhong Raya neighborhood where it is located. All services are provided free of charge.
Each tent, measuring 28 square meters, is fully air- conditioned, providing patients and medical staff alike relief from the heat of Banda Aceh.
The front tent, about 400 meters from the stadium's main gate, is used to register patients and as a pharmacy. Each tent is designated for specific purposes, including a general polyclinic, a laboratory, X-ray facilities, intensive care unit, a maternity ward, surgery and separate tents for male and female in-patients.
Like most hospitals, it operates around the clock. Two doctors and medical staff man the intensive care unit at all hours.
The medical team at the ICRC hospital includes doctors from Norway and from the Syaiful Anwar Hospital in Malang, East Java.
The Norwegian doctors declined to be interviewed or photographed for this article. "You can write about the others, but not us," one Norwegian doctor told The Jakarta Post.
The Syaiful Anwar team includes a surgeon, an anesthetist, a pediatrician, an internist and three general practitioners. Rulli Rosadi, one of the Indonesian doctors on duty on Tuesday, said the hospital treated up to 100 patients a day, with complaints ranging from fever, flu, breathing difficulties and broken bones, to depression.
"The most dominant are patients with depression and children patients," Rulli said.
Wiwi Jaya, another doctor, the hospital also treats patients from outside Banda Aceh, including Meulaboh and Calang, two devastated towns on the western coast of Sumatra.
"They are flown in by helicopter," he said.
Lutfiah, a tsunami survivor from Calang, said she was grateful to the ICRC for setting up the hospital. "It's free, the doctors are professional and the medicine is the best."
"They really treat us well. Language barrier aside, we feel very comfortable coming here for treatment," said the woman, who is being treated for respiratory problems.