Mobile clinic to Jordan

Mobile Clinic from Normeca A/S
to Jordan
By Colonel. Oyvind Myrvold (R)
Commanding officer of Norwegian Medical Corps.

Early in February 2003, Normeca A/S received, through our collaborator in Japan, and inquiry on the delivery of equipment for two complete mobile clinics to the refugee camps in Jordan, near the Iraq border. On February 5th, 2003, we received the formal order. The purchaser and user of the clinics was the Japanese humanitarian organisation Japan Platform / Iraq Crisis Respond Team (JP/ICRT). PREPOSITIONS FOR THE MISSION.
-		The clinics were to be established as medical clinics in special camps for refugees expected from Iraq. One, in the main camp near the city Ruweidshed, and the other at the Iraq border, to be able to treat patients with an immediate need for treatment. UNCHR was in charge of the co-ordinating management for the establishing and managing of the camps. The camps were to be built / prepared for up to approx. 90 000 refugees.
-		Normeca A/S should also provide 7 vehicles to the team.
-		A planning team from JP/ICRT was established in Amman Jordan already in good time before the equipment was transferred.
-		A representative from Normeca A/S was responsible for the establishing of the two clinics.
ACCOMPLISHING
-		Normeca A/S’s representative and the main parts of the material from Norway arrived at Amman by airfreight on February 18th, 2003. Due to the Jordan authority’s restrictions on transports and establishing in the Iraq borderlines, the establishing was considerably delayed. We could not start the transportation before March 17th, 2003.
-		The waiting time in Amman was used to planning and purchasing vehicles. The budget did not allow any purchase of new vehicles, but we succeeded to find 7 newer and very good second hand vehicles at a very good price. One of the vehicles was already an ambulance, and 2 were later equipped as ambulances. The last 4 vehicles were for transportation of personnel and materials.
-		On March 19th, 2003, the clinic in the refugee camp at Ruwayshed was established and ready to use, the other, at the border, were further delayed after directions from the UNCHR. The JP/ICRT however, performed medical effort with mobile teams at the border, and in “no mans land”. The establishing was made very difficult, but not delayed, due to very strong and long-lasting sandstorms. Large parts of the refugee camps, were however destroyed by the storm, especially the tents.
-		The representative from Normeca A/S returned home after having accomplished the mission on April 12th, 2003.
EXPERIENCES / “LESSONS LEARNED”
-		The materials.
		Under difficult conditions like this, as sandstorms, there are large demands to the quality of the materials. In spite of severe damages in the camps, the materials delivered by Normeca A/S functioned very well. However, because of the dust and the sand, we had to intensify the maintenance of the technical equipment, including especially generators, heaters and air-conditioning. The design and composition of the equipment showed to satisfy all the needs. An exception was the sterilizers and generators, 100 – 110 V (Japanese standard), delivered directly from Japan. The generators did not have the satisfying capacity to run the sterilizators. Also the air-bow tents, manufactured and delivered from Japan, gave us problems due to severe air leakage. All the materials which are to be used under such operations need to be tried out and tested in advance. All the equipment delivered from Norway functioned very well, it is adjusted for field conditions, is robust, easy to establish, operate and maintain.

The co-operation between the JP/ICRT, the local employees and the representative from Normeca A/S was satisfactory and functioned very well. The differences in the culture and language, was not a problem.