Hospital ship to deploy off Colombia

The Defense Department announced Aug. 21 that the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort would be deploying in the fall, marking the sixth hospital ship deployment to the region since 2007. Teams of U.S. service members and medical professionals will be working with America’s partner-nation of Colombia and elsewhere, to provide much-needed medical assistance, relieving the pressure of increased population flows on partner national health systems, according to a DoD media release. Its deployment is to reflect the U.S. commitment and solidarity with the Americas. Working with partner-nations, the hospital ship will provide life-saving treatment and medical care to thousands. (Source: DoD 08/21/18) Gulf Coast Note: Personnel from Naval Hospital Pensacola, Fla., and some of its branch clinics in La., Miss., and Fla., are no strangers to deploying with USNS Comfort. Dr. Chris Lewis, a Navy Pulmonary Medicine specialist at NHP, was among the internal medicine personnel to deploy in USNS Comfort during its Haitian recovery effort in 2010. On a four-hour notice, NHP corpsmen, laboratory technicians and pediatricians deployed in 2017 with USNS Comfort following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. They remained on duty for three months. In 2015, 19 personnel from NHP deployed with Comfort as part of the Continuing Promise humanitarian deployment for six months through Caribbean, and Central and South American countries. Although no orders have been cut for Navy medical and other personnel within the Gulf Coast region, Navy Medicine is in the process of identifying Comfort’s mission-needs and available personnel.