Quake-Damaged Hospital Reopens on Nias Island

State-run Gunungsitoli Hospital on Nias Island in North Sumatra Province, which was heavily damaged in a 2005 earthquake, reopened on Thursday after a major reconstruction project.

The island’s main hospital was devastated by an 8.7 magnitude earthquake, which struck on March 28, 2005, and claimed the lives of more than 300 people. Since then, the 700,000 residents of the island have relied on health clinics with limited facilities.

The $13.5 million project was headed by the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, or BRR, and funded by the Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese and Singaporean governments.

The agency granted an additional $2 million to recruit and train staff to operate the facility. A total of 11 doctors are currently undergoing specialist training at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta and are expected to return to Nias in 2012.

With several doctors and nurses among those killed in the quake, the island was in short supply of medical personnel.

“The rebuilding of this hospital is only one aspect of the rebuilding of the entire Nias health system,” BRR chairman Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said. “We are also building the capacity of the human resources and increasing the quality of health services.”

The 150-bed hospital is expected to improve health conditions on the island. Nias, one of the country’s least developed areas, has battled malnutrition and malaria.

“We hope to be the primary destination of health tourists in North Sumatra,” said the hospital’s director, Yulianus Mendrofa. “But the key to that is to keep increasing the staff’s capacity and sound maintenance so that all our efforts won’t be in vain.” – Nivell Rayda (Jakarta Globe – www.thejakartaglobe.com – 2 April 2009)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 12:18 PM and is filed under Reconstruction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.