The first group of 8th Army contingent of the Sri Lanka Medical Corps comprising 33 officers and other ranks has arrived in Juba as part of the United Nations Peace Keeping Missions (UNMISS).
The South Sudan bound contingent commanded by Lieutenant Colonel N M Niflar and his Deputy Major D. Y. S Kumara is made up of 66 army personnel, including Brig. Kalana Wijewardana, consultant surgeon, and 13 officers with medical specialists.
The second batch comprising 33 personnel to serve in the UNMISS’s level 2 Bor SRIMED Hospital will be expected to arrive in the country by early February 2022, according to Sri Lanka Army.
Their departure from Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake on January 31 will be dependent on the exit of the first group of the serving contingent, the Sri Lanka Army reported.
The contingent is composed of Ward In-Charge, nurses, critical care nurses (gynaecological), operation theatre technicians, Physiotherapists (DPM), radiographers, X-ray technicians, radiologists, dentists, dental assistants, and dental technicians.
Others included medical storemen, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, lab technician, lab technologists, communication technicians, hygiene assistants, administrative clerk, cooks, ambulance drivers, sanitary duty man, and mortuary attendant, among others.
Furthermore, among the ranks will be the Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps, Sri Lanka Signal Corps, Corps of Engineer Service, Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Sri Lanka Army Service Corps, and Sri Lanka Navy.
South Sudan’s Bor-based new SRIMED Hospital is manned by Sri Lanka troops and is equipped with necessary components for secondary care medical services. The facilities include an operating theatre, labour room, intensive care unit, emergency department, outpatient department, dental surgery, and dental workshop.
It also has a pharmacy, medical store, radiology department, clinical laboratory, ECG room, sterilising department, biomedical engineering section, medical waste disposal section, freezer mortuary, isolation ward, and laundry plus wards, and an aeromedical evacuation facility with ambulatory resuscitation and ventilation capabilities.