US hospital ship 'Mercy' leaves Aceh after six-week aid stint

Agence France-Presse/Jakarta

A U.S. navy hospital ship was due to leave Indonesia's tsunami- hit Aceh province on Wednesday, ending six weeks of humanitarian aid for victims of the December disaster, the U.S. embassy said.

The USNS Mercy has provided medical services in Aceh since Feb. 2 with the help of volunteers from the US-based non- government group Project Hope and American health officials.

Some 19,500 medical procedures were performed by the crew of the 1,000-bed San Diego-based floating hospital, including 285 surgical and operating room cases, the embassy said in a statement.

The ship was due to sail to eastern Indonesia to provide assistance to victims of other disasters in the quake-prone country before continuing its journey to other Southeast Asian regions and several Pacific island nations.

Navy hospital ships are normally used to treat U.S. soldiers wounded in combat. The Mercy supported coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War.

But they also have the secondary mission of providing full hospital service to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide.

The Mercy, a former supertanker commissioned in 1986 for use by the U.S. Navy's Sealift Command, is equipped with a range of medical facilities including X-ray suites and laboratories and can receive 300 patients daily.