Border hospital in front line of relief effort

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By Gary Duffy BBC News, Dominican Republic There was an "avalanche" of patients just after the earthquake

The Melenciano hospital at Jimani on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti has space for about 30 patients - but since the earthquake struck they have treated hundreds, in the most difficult of circumstances and with limited resources.

And this small country-town hospital is now in the front line of a major international disaster relief effort.

Many Haitians had little option but to cross the border and seek urgent medical help here, such was the scale of devastation in their country.

The team working here says there was "an avalanche" of patients arriving in the first few days after the quake - sometimes as many as 20 to each doctor.

We are poor too - but they are much more in need than we are Dr Francisco Moquete

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, and their relationship has at times been bitter and troubled.

But in the face of such terrible adversity, there seems a shared purpose in helping those who need it most.

Hospital director Dr Francisco Moquete says: "Everybody recognises that Haiti is poor, and that they need all the help they can get - not only in the short term but in the long term.

"We are poor too - but they are much more in need than we are."

The doctors and nurses here are trying their best to cope with what few resources they have.

Dr Omar Malik, who came from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, to help in the relief effort, says: "We are trying to give assistance to everybody - but we are lacking the kind of equipment we would like to treat all the fractures.

It's a disaster, with walls and ceilings falling on people, fractures, amputations - mostly traumatic injuries Dr Omar Malik

"We are overcrowded, but we are trying - we have three or four rooms for surgery, where we can operate. But we have a lot of infected patients and we need the equipment to treat that.

"There are all kind of injuries. It's a disaster, with walls and ceilings falling on people, fractures, amputations- mostly traumatic injuries.

"We want to do a lot of stuff that we can do in a big hospital with all the instruments and we can't do it over here."

In stifling heat, they move among the beds, examining X-rays and tending to the injured - men, women and children, young and old.

Some patients have had limbs amputated, other have broken legs and arms or are heavily scarred.

As well as dealing with some devastating injuries, many of those being treated here know their future is clouded in uncertainty, their homes in ruins.

A bed on the floor is the only option for some Haitian patients

One woman told me that because of the devastation her only option had been to cross the border, and she thought she might now have to live with relatives in the Dominican Republic.

The doctors here say they desperately need more resources - everything from basic medical supplies and laboratory equipment to tents to accommodate recovering patients.

Some supplies are arriving - but given the scale of the disaster, they seem far from adequate.

Haitian doctor Hermione Moise "lost a lot of family and friends" in the earthquake but is determined to keep on working and to return to Haiti with medical supplies.

"It has been very, very hard," she says. "I was in Haiti, on holiday, when the earthquake happened. I came here to buy some water, some food and then some medicine. I need to go back there to work in the hospital."