Hospital on wheels: Cebuano businessman rounds up support for mobile hospital project

A Cebuano hotelier has revealed over the weekend that several businessmen and civil society groups are working together to roll out mobile hospitals as part of efforts to help disaster-prone communities prepare for the inevitable onslaught of natural disasters.

“Many people who didn’t have to die still died because there was no medical facility,” Manuel Osmeña, owner of the Movenpick Hotel that hosted the Open Collaboration with East Asia New Champions (Ocean) gathering over the weekend.

Climate change and the effects of natural disasters to economic development was among the issues discussed in the recent World Economic Forum, as growth plans and projections need to factor in preparedness in the face of extreme natural phenomena such as supertyphoon Yolanda that struck the Visayas last year had to be taken into serious consideration.

Yolanda has stirred some in the private sector to take more action.
Osmeña said the mobile hospital idea was simple.

Specialized trucks would carry crucial medical equipment and supplies for deployment in times of need anywhere in the country via barges or roll-on-roll-off vessels.

While no specific details were given, the concept is apparently similar to the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units which were used by the US military in combat zones. MASH units were initially deployed in the Korean War and was deactivated in 2006.

MASH made its way into popular culture through the 1968 novel MASH by Richard Hooker which was made into a movie two years later. It also spawned a long-running television sitcom (1972–1983) which was shown on Philippine television in the mid-to-late 1970s.

MASH units were deployed in the frontlines and are fully equipped to render surgery to seriously injured patients.

During the Korean War, wounded soldiers who made it to the MASH unit alive had a 97 percent chance of survival once they get treatment.

Osmeña said during the Ocean summit that he was collaborating with the likes of Teresita Sy-Coson, daughter of the SM Group’s founder, Henry Sy Sr., and Gawad Kalinga founder Antonio Meloto to establish the mobile hospitals using specialized trucks.

He claimed he had already spent half a million pesos on the plan but would need to raise P30 million to acquire and customize 30 trucks, equivalent to about 10 mobile hospitals.

Pledges of support started to pour in after Osmeña revealed the plan which was scaled down from his original vision of a 1,000-bed hospital ship.

Osmeña said World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab suggested recently that the mobile hospital concept be presented at the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.