Mercy-class hospital ship

Mercy-class hospital ship
USNS Mercy
USNS Mercy leaving San Diego Bay.
Class overview
Name: Mercy class
Builders: National Steel and Shipbuilding Company
Operators:  United States Navy
Preceded by: Haven-class hospital ship
Built: 19741976
In commission: 1986present
Completed: 2
Active: 2
General characteristics
Type: Hospital ship
Displacement: 69,360 long tons (70,473 t)
Length: 894 ft (272 m)
Beam: 105 ft 7 in (32.18 m)
Propulsion: Two boilers, two GE turbines, one shaft, 24,500 hp (18 MW)
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph)
Complement:
  • 12 civilian and 58 military during Reduced Operating Status
  • 61 civilian and 1,214 military during Full Operating Status
Time to activate: 76 hours
Armament: None
Aviation facilities: Helicopter landing deck

The Mercy class of hospital ships are converted San Clemente-class supertankers now used by the United States Navy as naval ambulances. Originally built in the late 1970s by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, they were acquired by the Navy and converted into hospital ships, coming into service in 1986 and 1987.[1]

The ships are operated by Military Sealift Command and are designed to provide emergency, on-site care for American combatant forces, and also for use in support of disaster relief and humanitarian operations. Each ship contain 12 fully equipped operating theaters, a 1,000-bed hospital facility, radiological services, medical laboratory, pharmacy, optometry lab, CAT scan and two oxygen-producing plants.[1]

Ships

Two ships of the class were put into service:

Criticism

The Mercy-class ships are large, with 1,000 beds, and can receive up to 200 patients a day. They are stable platforms suitable for performing most surgical procedures in various sea conditions. However, the main points of criticism of these ships are:[1]

In mid-2004 Vice Admiral Michael L. Cowan, the Surgeon General and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said that the Comfort and Mercy should be retired. "They’re wonderful ships, but they’re dinosaurs. They were designed in the ’70s, built in the ’80s, and frankly, they’re obsolete".[1]

Few, if any, options are presently being explored to replace them with a platform better suited to the mission at this time.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Mercy class hospital ships". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
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