Another Mercy Ship

This is the USNS Mercy, a United States Navy hospital ship that has just completed a 4 month field service in the Pacific. At nearly 70,000 tonnes she is nearly 4 times the size of the Africa Mercy, but does similar humanitarian excercises, all paid for by Uncle Sam, and sometimes in partnership with NGOs. According to the Captains Blog, during the ship's recent visit to Micronesia they saw 17,709 patients, carried out 204 surgeries, filled 27,892 prescriptions and gave away 9,168 pairs of glasses. They even provided a veterinary service for 793 animals. The ships has a full crew of 1214 - a lot more than ours of 400 - and boasts 80 Intensive Care beds, 20 Recovery beds, 280 Intermediate Care beds, 120 Light Care beds, and 500 Limited Care beds (total 1000 beds). Her helicopters allow medics and construction teams to fly way inland, and carry patients back to the ship for treatment of surgery. I wonder if Mercy Ships will ever be able to operate on this kind of scale...Olly