'FG hospital ship proposal under consideration'

Tabnabs

THE GOVERNMENT is to consider a Fine Gael proposal that an Irish Naval Service hospital ship be sent to Haiti to assist with the relief effort in the wake of last week’s earthquake.

Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power said two Defence Force personnel had joined a technical team deployed to Haiti to assess the Irish response to the catastrophe.

Mr Power said during a Dáil debate on the earthquake that Irish Aid’s recommendations would incorporate the “helpful proposal” on the hospital ship from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Irish Aid has so far “provided enough supplies to shelter up to 8,000 families and to provide them with the water and basic infrastructure needed for survival”, he added.

Mr Kenny said: “We have a Naval Service vessel that is a fully equipped hospital ship.” He requested that the ship be “made ready” to sail for Haiti. “Doctors and nurses in this country are more than willing to stay on that ship and carry out essential operations for those who have been devastated by the earthquake.”

The Minister said Irish Aid officials “have been in contact with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to examine how the participation of Irish medical professionals can be facilitated. The technical team will make recommendations on how we can best contribute to relief efforts and Deputy Kenny’s helpful proposal will be incorporated into our response.”

Mr Power warned that “the risk of infection from delays in carrying out surgery and the spread of disease is enormous and must be dealt with if thousands of further deaths are to be avoided in the coming weeks. The fact that the rainy season is due to begin in March means that the international community has only a limited time to address these issues and avoid a public health catastrophe.”

He also paid tribute to the “extraordinary level of generosity” of the Irish public, saying “their support will mean the difference between life and death for many of those suffering the effects of this disaster”.

Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins said the death toll “is akin to the population of Cork and Galway together being wiped out overnight”. He believed consideration should be given to “opening up the rapid response corps to the private sector and increase its strength to up to 3,000”.

Labour spokesman Michael D Higgins also praised the level of Irish contributions and said they would be well spent. He said that following the 2004 tsunami “the kind of contributions that were made in Ireland were found, after the examination post-tsunami, to have been the most effective on the ground”.

Sinn Féin spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh believed the reports of local violence had been “much hyped”.

He said “earthquake survivors have been left to fend for themselves because aid has not reached them. In those circumstances people will scavenge for food . . . call this looting but it is survival. A refusal to deliver aid to those areas exacerbates the problems in those areas.”

source

Mr Kenny said: “We have a Naval Service vessel that is a fully equipped hospital ship.”

A fully equipped hospital ship

I was in Maryland one time and two berths up was an American hospital ship


But which INS ship is he referring to?

helimachoptor

Dyflin wrote: »

But which INS ship is he referring to?

Was thinking that myself

concussion

I don't know what's worse, Enda Kenny thinking we have a fully equipped medical vessel or the fact that the government is considering sending her!

ex_infantry man

he,s more than likely referring to the L.E. Eithne i,d say anyways as it the only one with helipad, i could be wrong now but can,t think of any other of the naval vessels that can make casivac drops

citizen_p

you would think they would park it up in dublin or cork and use it there ffs. tons of people waiting for beds.....waiting for operations etc...

the_syco

ex_infantry man wrote: »

L.E. Eithne

Nice ship.
http://www.mileata.ie/navy/flotilla/p31/eithne.htm

=-=

I'd also bet Enda would be amongst the first to lambast the government had they come up with the idea first.

ex_infantry man

the_syco wrote: »

Nice ship.
http://www.mileata.ie/navy/flotilla/p31/eithne.htm

=-=

I'd also bet Enda would be amongst the first to lambast the government had they come up with the idea first.

i totally agree!! and him thinking the irish naval service have a hospital ship is laughable, our vessel flotilla are meer patrol boats and not naval warship flotilla,s that have battle groups like the u.s. navy of royal navy!! does he think we,re still under british rule or something???

Original Steyr

ex_infantry man wrote: »

L.E. Eithne i,d say anyways as it the only one with helipad

It's not even a helipad anymore, more of a container space.

concussion

ex_infantry man wrote: »

he,s more than likely referring to the L.E. Eithne i,d say anyways as it the only one with helipad, i could be wrong now but can,t think of any other of the naval vessels that can make casivac drops

Casevac capability does not equal hospital ship.

ex_infantry man

Original Steyr wrote: »

It's not even a helipad anymore, more of a container space.

could easily be changed back

OS119

concussion wrote: »

Casevac capability does not equal hospital ship.

no, but a lack of helicopter capability rules any ship - regardless of what else its carrying - out of being a hospital ship...

can't see anything bigger than a blackhawk/seahawk being able to land - even very carefully or temporarily - on a deck that size, and thats not a very efficient way of using limited helicopter resources.

its a silly idea, if you want to send medical help, send an army field hospital.







except that Ireland has no airlift capability, all of its friends military airlift capability is somewhat busy, and the comercial stuff is booked up till the 12th of forever....

Original Steyr

OS119 wrote: »

except that Ireland has no airlift capability, all of its friends military airlift capability is somewhat busy, and the comercial stuff is booked up till the 12th of forever....

Easy way to solve that, send them all on an Aer Lingus A330-300, they recently sent aid/medical staff so i dont see why they cant send whatever they need again. They all did it voluntairly and all costs/fees were waived.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055806416

dsmythy

concussion wrote: »

I don't know what's worse, Enda Kenny thinking we have a fully equipped medical vessel or the fact that the government is considering sending her!

I think it shows that the government were just ignoring him and giving him lip service otherwise their response would of been, "er, it doesn't exist".

OS119

dsmythy wrote: »

I think it shows that the government were just ignoring him and giving him lip service otherwise their response would of been, "er, it doesn't exist".

surely - given that we're talking about a political discourse - the obvious solution would have been to laugh in his face and say 'ha! what hospital ship - we've a patrol ship with a handful of sick-beds and a party pack of asprin - the man's an arse, how can he possibly claim to be competent to lead the government when he makes such gargantuan mistakes about what assests the state has?'

if it was an FF member asking the question, i'd expect a 'mumble mumble, we'll see what we can do' answer, but this was a superb opportunity to make a fool of a serious(?) political opponent - i fear what it really indicated was that the minister wasn't that much better informed than the clown asking the idiot question...

Morpheus

you wouldnt get a blackhawk/seahawk down on the deck, or rather you would but it would probably end its landing 5 decks down as the "ex-helideck" is limited in what weight it can support and definitely not strong enough to hold the weight of a meduim heli.

OS119

Morphéus wrote: »

you wouldnt get a blackhawk/seahawk down on the deck, or rather you would but it would probably end its landing 5 decks down as the "ex-helideck" is limited in what weight it can support and definitely not strong enough to hold the weight of a meduim heli.

if the rotors are still generating lift - like a mid-air 'hover' just with the landing gear conveniently placed on the deck - then the weight limits aren't an issue because its the rotors/engines taking the weight, not the landing gear and service. happens all the tme, not an issue...

bigger issue is whether a blackhawk/seahawk/merlin etc.. could perform an 'on deck hover' with a stretcher transfer without its rotors ploughing into the ships superstructure - i don't know...?

concussion

Anything more than flat calm would probably bugger that plan at the outset anyway.

OS119

i suppose if we're going to to the edge of capability the transfer could be by winch, in which case you could do it in sea states that would bugger up a landing - light or heavy. not sure i fancy that as a starting point for a capability though!

however, the big news appears to be "these vessels are frighteningly unsuitable for any kind of medical support operations and the idiot who thought they were - and the other idiot who agreed with him - shouldn't be in charge of a bag of chips, let alone a Naval Service..."

concussion

Mmm...chips

goldie fish

Nothing can land on eithne any more since they put the big crane on the corner of the helideck.