In less than two weeks, the coastal town of Miragoâne in Haiti’s Nippes Department will open its doors to a landmark free public health initiative, a large-scale surgical caravan organized by the country’s Ministry of Public Health. Preparations have entered their final phase, with local and national health teams working around the clock to deliver much-needed specialized care to underserved patients across the region.
Following a comprehensive site evaluation by Ministry representatives Dr. Nesi Floris and Dr. Jacques Richard Petit-Ton, Sainte-Thérèse Hospital in Miragoâne was selected as the primary hub for the caravan’s operations. The evaluation team assessed the facility’s infrastructure, tested existing medical equipment, and mapped out gaps that would need to be filled ahead of the first surgical procedures, confirming the hospital was equipped to support the high volume of planned cases.
To streamline planning and execution, Departmental Health Director Dr. Esther Ceus Dumont has overseen the establishment of a dedicated cross-functional working committee. Led by Eluderne Dénius, Coordinator of the Miragoâne Health District, the committee is responsible for coordinating all pre-operation activities: from outreach to identify eligible patients across every corner of the department, to organizing mandatory pre-operative health assessments that will ensure patients are cleared for surgery.
The initiative draws on a collaborative network of medical professionals, including the long-serving Cuban medical brigade deployed to Haiti, alongside local specialists and providers mobilized from national central health institutions. The multidisciplinary care team includes general surgeons, anesthesiologists, gynecologists, internists, sonographers, and experienced nursing and technical support staff. Sainte-Thérèse Hospital Director Dr. Amondieu Gabriel, a practicing surgeon himself, has been a core contributor to preparation efforts, integrating the hospital’s existing staff into the caravan’s workflow.
Already, pre-campaign outreach and assessment work has delivered concrete results. A large mobile screening clinic was recently set up in the neighboring town of Anse-à-Veau, where care providers evaluated nearly 100 patients with unmet surgical needs. Early triage found that the majority of patients presented with hernias and hydroceles, alongside a significant number of general surgery cases including gallbladder disease and hemorrhoids, plus a small number of gynecological conditions requiring intervention.
The data collected during these mobile screenings has already built a comprehensive registry of patients waiting for surgery, with candidates pre-categorized and pre-positioned for quick access to the mobile surgical unit once the caravan officially launches. This pre-screening process is designed to cut wait times and ensure the caravan can serve as many patients as possible during its run.
The free surgical caravan is a direct fulfillment of a campaign commitment made by Haiti’s Minister of Health Dr. Bertrand Sinal, who first announced the nationwide free surgery program to address the growing unmet surgical needs of low-income Haitian communities. For thousands of residents across Nippes Department who have delayed life-improving care for months or even years due to financial barriers and limited access to specialized services, the initiative will be life-changing: it will give these patients access to free, high-quality surgical care and help them regain the quality of life they have been unable to access until now.