The Barbados Defence Force (BDF) has called for volunteers for its field medical team (FMT) to ready the armed forces hospital for future emergency deployments and become eligible to increase its capabilities.
Taking reporters on a tour of the field hospital at the National Stadium on Thursday, BDF officers were joined by Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) representatives as preparations continue to seek reclassification from Type One to a general hospital-level Type Two facility. In addition to providing immediate life-saving treatment and routine clinical care, a Type Two field hospital includes surgery and post-operative services.
Coast Guard Lieutenant Anderson Goodridge, the field medical team’s executive officer, told reporters that planning for the advancement to a Type Two field medical hospital was progressing smoothly. But he revealed that there remained a great need for willing Barbadians to sign up for the team, which is currently in need of various professionals outside the medical field.
“We are actually in the process of seeking more volunteers from across the various professions,” said Lieutenant Goodridge. “We are speaking of nurses, doctors, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, anaesthetists, lab techs, sterilisation technicians, you name it, to join the FMT.”
“At present, we have approximately 189 [volunteers], and recently we have brought on board about 45 persons to join the FMT. We are not sticking to any particular number; if we can get persons coming in, let’s say five lab techs, [and] six doctors, we will take them all because we are not sticking to any particular number. We need to build out the FMT as it relates to our operation for our verification to a Type Two field medical hospital,” he added.
Volunteering for the team is open to any professional 18 years and older, he said, as the team sought a healthy mix of youth and experience to staff the operation whenever an emergency arises.
Here,
(from left) Lealou Reballos, Advisor, Health Emergencies at PAHO; Regional Advisor to PAHO Luis de la Fuente Martín; and Major David Clarke, the field medical team’s medical liaison officer, in discussion at the field hospital site.
“The blend is very important because they obviously can learn from each other and we really need those skills to encompass the work that we have to put in as it relates to the field medical hospital,” the FMT’s executive officer said.
He noted that in the event of a disaster here or abroad, given its experience in recent years with stronger storms and hurricanes, the hospital had to be ready to render humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), at a moment’s notice.
Lieutenant Goodridge explained: “It’s very important for the Barbados Defence Force with the Field Medical Hospital, to assist with HADR. You can appreciate that this concept came out of the devastation of Dominica in 2015, when our Chief of Staff then, he actually saw the hospital in Dominica that was destroyed, and he would have said that he would love to have something like this to assist in the event that it does happen again.
“So you can see here and then that it is very important and critical in order to help our RSS [Regional Security System] countries, and I dare say, go beyond as well, to help other international countries as it relates to a field medical hospital.”
Major David Clarke, the FMT’s medical liaison officer, said the upgraded reclassification of the hospital is to be certified by WHO representatives as the team prepares to conduct training exercises over the next several months.
“We are at present classified as a Type One, we were classified by the [WHO] in September 2019, and every five years you have to go through a reclassification exercise, and we are in the process of preparing for our reclassification, but we also want to do our Type Two accreditation which would make us a general hospital,” he explained.
“We will be at the National Stadium for a while as we have a number of training courses over the next couple of months, which include a training course for the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). We will also be involved in the Tradewinds exercise, as well as CARPHA’s response mechanism where a field hospital is required, if anything happens during the T20 Cricket World Cup.”
He further emphasised that as a Type Two hospital, the BDF facility must be capable of not only being deployed at a moment’s notice but also of operating independently regardless of the region in which it is deployed.
“As an FMT Type Two, we have to be able to deploy for 21 days in theatre, and we must be self-sufficient for those 21 days. So we must be able to feed ourselves, have all of the emergency supplies that we need, and if we actually run out, have a mechanism by which we resupply,” Major Clarke said.
(SB)
