US Am­bas­sador Can­dace Bond gift­ed the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA) with a 40-bed field hos­pi­tal and am­bu­lance yes­ter­day as part of the em­bassy’s con­tin­ued ef­forts to strength­en the re­la­tions be­tween the US and To­ba­go.

At a cer­e­mo­ny at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex Bond said this con­tri­bu­tion will serve as a bridge be­tween life­sav­ing med­ical care and those who need it.

“This field hos­pi­tal and am­bu­lance will en­hance To­ba­go’s emer­gency re­sponse ca­pa­bil­i­ties. The field hos­pi­tal is specif­i­cal­ly de­signed to pro­vide TEMA with the flex­i­bil­i­ty and the ca­pac­i­ty to re­spond swift­ly to crises and will pro­vide emer­gency med­ical care to those in need.”

She said this con­tri­bu­tion was val­ued at near­ly US$1 mil­lion and sym­bol­is­es the em­bassy’s con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to To­ba­go and sup­port for the safe­ty and well-be­ing of all part­ners in T&T.

“Whether in a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter, health emer­gency or any un­fore­seen event these re­sources will help save lives and that is so im­por­tant. It is go­ing to al­le­vi­ate and pro­vide sup­port to To­ba­go’s first re­spon­ders.”

The field hos­pi­tal in­cludes four 19 by 35 units de­signed to serve as wards, ICU, triage, as­sess­ment and ad­vanced med­ical post.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine praised the am­bas­sador and her team for the do­na­tion to the is­land.

“This speaks to a long-stand­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween the US and TEMA. It is no sur­prise this re­la­tion­ship is long-stand­ing be­cause TEMA is the re­gion’s best emer­gency re­sponse agency. Where To­ba­go is ge­o­graph­i­cal­ly lo­cat­ed it is even more im­por­tant for TEMA to be well equipped,” he said.