Digital X-Ray Detectors & Transport Stretchers Project
🇨🇦 Canadian Program
Project Need
This project provided radiology equipment, specifically digital X-ray detectors for the hospital ships the Africa Mercy and Global Mercy, and patient transport stretchers for the Africa Mercy. The Africa Mercy arrived in Durban, South Africa in February 2023 and started the re-fit project work in March 2023 with completion of the re-fit in January 2024. The re-fit project work includes new radiology equipment. The Global Mercy new radiology equipment was installed before the orthopaedic phase in December 2023 of the Sierra Leone field service.
Project Overview
As part of the Africa Mercy re-fit and new equipment for the Global Mercy, the digital X-ray detectors and transport stretchers equipment were purchased and shipped to the Mercy Ships’ warehouse in the US.
Digital X-Ray Detectors
Radiology equipment has a typical lifecycle of 7-10 years. Radiology services are required 24/7 to provide diagnostic imaging for patients and crew on a routine and emergency basis and essential to providing safe surgery.
The current radiology system requires two images be taken and later stitched together in the software. The child is required to maintain in an awkward position for an extended period allowing for the child to move about and the two images then are different and cannot be properly aligned in the software. Currently, the surgeons are not getting the images they need, and the child is subject to double exposure of X-ray radiation. Also, this manual stitching of long leg images does not work in our population of children with severe deformities.
Transport Stretchers
The transport stretchers for the Africa Mercy, have a usage cycle of 5-10 years to ensure safety and available maintenance parts.
The current transport stretchers on the Africa Mercy are now more than 8 years old and are approaching the end of their expected usage cycle. These must be replaced due to their age and reliability. The manufacturer no longer produces replacement repair parts needed for safety and maintenance.
Project Impacts
The radiology equipment arrived at the warehouse, it was then shipped to the Africa Mercy and the Global Mercy where it has been installed and commissioned for use. The digital X-ray detectors radiology equipment have been installed on both the Global Mercy and the Africa Mercy to simplify vendor support, biomedical maintenance tasks and ensure uniform machine functioning for radiology technicians and were procured from an established Mercy Ships’ vendor.
The success of the project is measured by the support the equipment provides in delivering direct, high-quality medical services supplied by the volunteer crew on Mercy Ships’ hospital vessels throughout the operational life span of the equipment. The number and type of patients served by the medical equipment are directly linked to the organization’s surgical plans and priorities, ensuring that resources align with the most urgent medical needs. Both pieces of equipment are considered essential to the free surgical care and patient services that Mercy Ships provides to patients in low-resource countries in Africa, where access to safe surgery is often extremely limited. Their presence not only strengthens the capacity of the hospital ships but also represents a vital investment in sustainable healthcare delivery, helping restore health, dignity, and hope to thousands of individuals who would otherwise go untreated.
“I love that Mercy Ships brings people from all over the world trained in various places and careers to use their knowledge and abilities to make miracles happen every single day.”
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