FAR built the tented hospital in Casablanca in addition to a site in Benslimane under King Mohammed VI’s instructions to alleviate COVID-19 pressure on civilian hospitals.
Rabat – As part of national efforts to strengthen Morocco’s health infrastructure against the growing COVID-19 crisis, the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) built a temporary military field hospital in Nouaceur, near Casablanca.
Like the military field hospital in Benslimane, also near Casablanca, FAR needed only six days to complete construction in Nouaceur.
The Nouaceur military field hospital has a capacity of 200 beds and is equipped with the necessary medical equipment to treat COVID-19 patients.
The field hospital’s medical staff is also prepared to face the COVID-19 challenge in the site’s three departments.
The hospital has dedicated 20 beds for patients with serious conditions, while patients with mild conditions requiring intensive emergency care and resuscitation will receive treatment in the remaining 180 beds.
“A total of 180 beds in three buildings is reserved for less severe cases requiring appropriate medical supervision, while the intensive care unit dedicated to severe cases has a minimum capacity of 20 beds,” Colonel Moujahid Mountassir, chief medical officer of the hospital, said to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
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FAR has also deployed “a medical team of 13 members, including two anesthesiologists-resuscitators, two emergency doctors, six general practitioners, a biologist, and a pharmacist, alongside a paramedical staff composed of 73 people, including nurses and nursing assistants,” to the site.
“The nursing staff is supported by a 30-member support team led by two officers, a manager, and a mobilization officer,” added Mountassir.
Anass El Bouti, an anesthesiologist-resuscitator, explained that the experienced medical staff is highly motivated and supported by an on-field medical analysis laboratory and a radiology unit, complete with a standard radiography unit and an ultrasound system.
Alongside the medical staff of the Nouaceur Military Field Hospital, a team of social workers is set to assist patients with the necessary psychological help and provide their families with the necessary information.
Casablanca-Settat is the hardest-hit region in Morocco, with approximately 230 cases of COVID-19. The military field hospitals in Nouaceur and Bensilmane should help ease the burden of the virus on public medical facilities.
King Mohammed VI mobilized military medicine on March 23 to collaborate with civilian medicine in the fight against COVID-19.
The King called upon civilian and military doctors to work “in harmony and intelligence” to contain the spread of the pandemic.
