76 members of the B-FAST team who were deployed in Turkey arrived this Sunday evening at the Major Housiau military district in Peutie (Flemish Brabant). They were welcomed there by the Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke. In two weeks, the B-FAST team was able to help some 1,500 victims of the earthquake in the field hospital set up in Kirikhan.
The first part of the team left for Turkey on February 14. 76 of them returned this Sunday. Fifteen others had already returned to Belgium in recent days. This concerns both medical staff, such as doctors and nurses, and logisticians, including the workers who built the field hospital, kitchen staff, IT and electricity managers, as well as managers.
“It was a challenge to turn a vacant lot into a fully functional field hospital“, explained, on her return, Lieselotte Demarez, who coordinated the team in Turkey as team leader of the FPS Foreign Affairs. “But we managed to set up regarding twenty beds where regarding 200 consultations might take place every day.“. “We were able to create something beautiful thanks to the cooperation between different departments“, she added.
At the same time, a second B-FAST group, consisting of 91 people, has already arrived in Kirikhan, in southern Turkey. He will also stay there for 15 days, the Belgian mission being evaluated every fortnight “according to local needs“.
Since B-FAST is present in Turkey, the team has already treated more than 1,500 patients. Two babies were also born in the field hospital. Operating independently, the latter has several departments, including triage rooms, general surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, radiology, an operating room, a laboratory and a sterilization room. Twenty patients can be hospitalized there.
