Atar hospital gets a checkup

by Master Sgt. Brian M. Boisvert
USAFE-AFAFRICA

9/2/2014 - ATAR, Mauritania -- While the African Partnership Flight Mauritania students continued their classes, a small team of U.S. Air Force medics took a break from their APF duties and visited a local hospital as part of a routine health and safety inspection here, Sept. 2, 2014.

Primarily assigned to support the APF Mauritania mission, the team used some down time to inspect local medical facilities that serve the Mauritanian military forces. The visit will open up dialogue between the local medical staff and the U.S. to build stronger partnerships for the future.

The small team consisted of Capt. Brandy Sande, U.S. Air Forces Africa physician assistant, Maj. Michael Morrow, 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron flight nurse, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and Capt. Mohammed Diallo, critical care nurse and interpreter from Walter Reed Hospital.

"We came here to see what capabilities this hospital had and how we could learn from each other," said Morrow. "This is a very impressive hospital and it offers more capability than I could have imagined."

The team was guided by Dr. Abdoullah Ould Hmeyade, Centre Hospitalier D'Atar director, and was given a full access tour of the two operating rooms, x-ray facility, emergency services with three ambulances, a laboratory and a maternity ward.

The hospital, which was built in 1958, receives and treats over 150 patients a day. It offers a pharmacy, isolation room, dental services, routine clinic treatment, immunizations and medical insurance assistance. It can also keep up to 55 medical/surgical patients in the inpatient.

"I am honored to be able to host you and welcome your team into my hospital," said Hmeyade. "It is my hope that we can build a strong partnership with the U.S. hospitals and I would welcome an invitation for a member of my team to be hosted at a hospital in the U.S. to learn from the best and if we could host one of your physicians here, we would be honored."

"The main goal of this visit was for us to assess the capabilities of this facility and to open a communication partnership where we will be able to exchange knowledge," said Sande. "Dr. Hmeyade was very gracious in taking his time to host us during this visit and I look forward to possible communication in the future."

APF Mauritania is a classroom learning environment where students from Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Tunisia are taught lessons in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, in addition to, ground and flight safety, and air command operations by Airmen from U.S. Air Forces in Europe-AFAFRICA, as well as, instructors from Air Mobility Command.