A new hospital ship is expected to double the impact of free healthcare across the African continent.

Announcing the latest addition to its offering of healthcare missions, faith-based non-profit organisation Mercy Ships describes the Global Mercy as ‘a modern, state-of-the-art hospital ship equipped with six surgical operating rooms’. It also has a simulation laboratory for surgical and post-operative care, providing a specialised training platform for African surgeons, obstetricians, dentists and anaesthesiologists.

The vessel will join the global humanitarian organisation’s Africa Mercy ship, which provided free surgeries to more than 1 200 people while docked at the port of Dakar in Senegal between August 2019 to March 2020.

The Global Mercy will have capacity to host a 600-strong contingent of volunteering professionals, from surgeons to cooks and mariners. The ship can carry up to 950 crew and guests, and also houses a 682-seat auditorium, a school, a gymnasium, a pool, a café, a store and a library. The ship is scheduled to begin service in Africa in 2021.

In Africa between 1990 and 2020, the organisation performed more than 100 000 free surgeries, trained at least 40 000 medical professionals, renovated around 100 health facilities and implemented in excess of 1 000 community projects.

13 October 2020
Image: Mercy Ships