September 23, 2005

Fourth MGH group deployed to
Gulf Coast

While three teams of MGH employees already have been deployed to bring aid to the areas of the Gulf Coast that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, a fourth team of nine physicians, three nurses and one mental health clinician left Sept. 19 for a two-week deployment.

The group is supplementing the work of Operation Helping Hand, which serves as part of the US Public Health Service's (PHS) deployment of medical aid to the Gulf Coast area under the direction of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. The MGH team is helping other PHS teams deliver primary care to the 75,000 displaced evacuees who have been living in surrounding camps. The teams will be caring for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma and heart failure and tending to other conditions such as dehydration and infections.

MGH team of volunteers leaving the hospital for the Gulf Coast on September 19th.