OPERATIONAL READINESS ENABLES SAF MEDICAL TEAM TO RETURN EARLY

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medical team returned to Singapore on 9 Oct after spending six days in Bali to assist medical staff at the Sanglah General Hospital to treat casualties of the 1 Oct bombings.

Leader of the SAF medical team, Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) (Dr) Tay Guan Sze felt that it was appropriate for the medical team to head home.

"The casualties are not as many as the previous incident in 2002," said LTC (Dr) Tay. "The hospital staff were much better prepared this time."

He added that by the time the medical team left, only 10 out of the 62 casualties admitted to the hospital remained warded.

The rest had been treated and discharged while the foreign casualties had either been transferred to other hospitals for further treatment or had returned home.

Overall, LTC (Dr) Tay said his team was glad to have made a useful contribution and they had also benefited from the experience.

The team's work was much appreciated by the medical staff of Sanglah General Hospital.

LTC (Dr) Tay and his team observed that the people of Bali were calm and peaceful, and tourists were still moving around the popular tourist resort island despite the terrorist attack nine days earlier.

"The people of Bali understand that they have to show the rest of the world that they can manage the crisis so that Bali will continue to be an attractive tourism destination," he said.

03 Oct 05 - SAF Deploys Medical Team to Bali