PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — If you walk into a Canadian hospital with a cut, that’s a fairly easy problem to solve. Bandage goes on, and off you go.
But in a poor, publicly-funded Haitian hospital like La Paix, it’s sometimes not so simple. Maybe they have bandages, but they can’t find them. Maybe they’re somewhere under a pile of boxes thrown into the next room, next to the expired medicine that no one knew was in there, either.
On Tuesday, La Paix and a group of volunteers from Ontario celebrated the opening of a warehouse they hope will solve the rampant disorganization that is the curse of many hospitals here.
With $200,000 from local donors, including many in Waterloo Region, the St. Joseph’s International Outreach Program built a 3,500-square-foot warehouse that was carefully stocked floor to ceiling with donated medical supplies, equipment and drugs.
The Canadians say this building can save patients’ limbs, even lives. Without it, La Paix would be drowning under the countless skids of supplies that are donated by agencies around the world — equipment that until now was simply thrown in the ER or morgue because they had no place to put it.
Read full story in today's Record.
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