Two months after remaining docked in the Granadilla Port, the Global Mercy, considered the largest civilian hospital ship in the world -owned by the Mercy Ships humanitarian organization Mercy Ships-, will leave today for Dakar with the certainty of returning to the southern port in July, to complete its provision as a hospital. The ship arrived at the port facility from Rotterdam on March 21, 2022 and during these months she completed her crew and continued equipping her as a hospital ship. To do this, she had the collaboration of island companies through her consignee, Tenerife Offshore Shipping, representatives of Mercy Ships for 34 years.
As a hospital, and among its multiple facilities, the ship has six operating rooms in which a team made up of 30 professionals will attend to any surgical intervention, free of charge, with the guarantee of having recovery areas and, if necessary, isolation to treat diseases such as Ebola, “which seems to be on the rise in certain areas from Africa”. This was stated by Gerardo Vangioni, president of Naves de la Esperanza in Spain, to the president and director of Puertos de Tenerife, Carlos González and Javier Mora, respectively, during the visit to the ship the day before its preventive closure to avoid contagion by covid prior to your departure.
The volunteers with whom he sets sail today for the Senegalese port have all been on board since last Tuesdayday 17. Once complete, the crew will be composed, in addition to operating room personnel, by another 150 professionals such as doctors from different specialties, nurses, laboratory personnel, biomedical doctors and physiotherapists, among others.
In addition to learning about the ship’s facilities, the president of Puertos de Tenerife personally thanked the company for the trust placed in the ports attached to this body, which Mercy Ships already considers its home port. During the event held on board, which was also attended by the CEO of Global Mercy, Joff Williams; The captain of the ship, Taylor Pérez, and the consignees of him, showed the gratitude of the company.
a special shelter
In the words of the captain, “the Port of Granadilla is a special refuge for us, which we will continue to count on after the experience with the Africa Mercy”. It should be remembered that said unit arrived at the port facility of the Polígono de Granadilla coinciding with the declaration of the state of alarm due to the covidin March 2020. It underwent annual repair and maintenance tasks in this enclosure, where it remained for 22 months and from which it left on January 29 of the current year.
On this first Global Mercy trip to Dakar, the volunteers on board will spend six weeks training Senegalese professionals, returning to the Port of Granadilla in July to continue equipping it as a hospital ship. Once its crew is complete and the ship functions as a hospital, the organization plans to perform more than 3,000 surgeries and train more than 2,800 health professionals each year in sub-Saharan African nations.
The Global Mercy is a unique ship in the passenger class, as it is 174 meters long, 28.6 meters wide and weighs 37,000 tons. The total area of the hospital department is 7,000 meters and it has a capacity for 641 crew members, who come from more than 50 nations.
