One of the two field hospitals donated by the US government to help the Health Ministry provide additional care for covid19 patients was due to go into use at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility on Friday.

The other hospital, which was set up at the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo, went active earlier this week.

Speaking with Newsday at the field hospital earlier in the day, North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) CEO Davlin Thomas said, "We are taking patients tonight. We are taking six (patients) tonight. We will do some soft testing with six and then we escalate as we go."

The field hospital has bed space for 36 patients.

[caption id="attachment_890958" align="alignnone" width="683"] CEO of the NCRHA, Davalin Thomas. - Photos by Lincoln Holder[/caption]

Thomas explained, "Infrastructurally, this hospital has most of the features of a general hospital..;the electrification, lighting, the space for us to put the oxygen, the beds etcetera."

He said the field hospital is being used "for emergency, for patients, who are transfers basically from main facilities like Eric Williams and so on, that actually have emergency congestion at their emergency departments with covid19 patients. It is really to alleviate some of that congestion."

Thomas explained that because of the upsurge in covid19 cases, there is a need to put covid19 patients who are stable in safe places and "ensure that they don't deteriorate."

The hospital is fully equipped with all the medical supplies it needs to ensure proper medical care for its patients, he said.

"We have been stockpiling. In the past, what we have been doing is a lot of projections via our public health observatory. Based on that, we knew we had a good sense of what we would be dealing with, and we were stockpiling equal to that."

Asked specifically about oxygen supplies for the field hospital, Thomas said there is a plant at the nearby Point Lisas Industrial Estate from which oxygen tanks could be acquired and there is onsite oxygen at the main Couva Hospital which can be used to supply the field hospital on its doorstep.

He said there are over 20 staff for the field hospital, a combination of NCRHA and Defence Force personnel.

On May 12, the Prime Minister and Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh condemned boasts from the Opposition UNC that the US government sent field hospitals to TT because party leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar had asked for them at a UNC virtual meeting on May 10.

[caption id="attachment_890957" align="alignnone" width="1024"] General manager of nursing at the Couva Medical and Multi Training Facility Dianne Hinneh shows the bed space at the field hospital set up on the compound of the facility. - Photo by Lincoln Holder[/caption]

In a post on his Facebook page, Dr Rowley declared, "Shameless liars.

"Attempting to take political credit for Government work that had nothing to do with them! How can anyone ever trust these people."