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'Clinic in a Can' units may provide medical care along Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca

February 02, 2016
Business Affairs Emergency Medicine Population Health Primary Care Risk Management
A Clinic in a Can facility
Courtesy: GE Healthcare
By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Reporter

From Haiti to Sierra Leone — and many other countries ravaged by disaster or disease — relocatable medical facilities have become an increasingly vital tool for improving health care access around the globe since 2002. Clinic in a Can has announced it will be deploying its self-contained medical units to the Middle East after striking a deal with Samama Holdings Co. at last week’s Arab Health Exhibition and Congress.

The Saudi Gazette reported that the contract, signed with GE Healthcare in partnership with Clinic in a Can, will result in the distribution of 100 Clinic in a Can units in the Arabian Gulf region.

Nasser M. Almutawa Alotaibi, chairman of Samama’s board, told MustcatDaily.com they planned to use them in areas used for the Hajj pilgrimage — an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and one of the largest annual gatherings of humans on the planet.

“Clinic in a Can will provide medical care to those who need it, anywhere,” he told the Web site. “To start with, we hope to have 30 units in place for Hajj this year.”

In an interview with The National, Alotaibi also noted that Clinic in a Can units could be deployed to “border areas where there are clashes, such as at Saudi Arabia’s southern border with Yemen.”

Located in Wichita, Kan., the non-profit Clinic in a Can retrofits shipping containers with medical equipment and furniture supplied by corporate partners like GE Healthcare, Midmark, Hill-Rom and Welch Allyn. They start as either a 20-foot or 40-foot steel shipping container and are built to be self-contained, and can purify water, control temperatures, and generate their own power, mainly through solar panels.

Prices for the units can run about $70,000 or $80,000 and they are designed to have a life span of about 30 years. The containers can be configured for use as primary care, critical care unit, trauma and emergency care, a surgical suite, dental facility, or isolation unit.

GE Healthcare funded several units that were sent last year to Sierra Leone, to treat patients suffering during the Ebola crisis. The National reports four units funded by GE are still in the West African nation.

“The relocatable clinics are a great solution to support the country’s rudimentary health infrastructure, which has struggled to provide primary care and to treat Ebola victims at the height of the outbreak,” said Paul Morton, general manager of Hospital & Healthcare Solutions (HHS) and commercial director of Solutions Division for GE Healthcare, Russia, Turkey, Central Asia, Middle East & Africa.

Morton, who was also in Dubai for the Arab Health exhibition, told The National, “We expect a strong demand in conflict zones, after natural disasters and remote areas, with NGOs and governments as clients.”

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