SAF TO DEPLOY MEDICS FOR CIVILIAN EMERGENCIES FROM SEP 2017: DR NG

Don t be surprised if you see Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medics emerging from Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) ambulances and responding to civilian emergencies in the near future.

From this September, 12 SAF medics will be deployed on SCDF ambulances for a three-month pilot project. Comprising 10 full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) and two regular servicemen, these medics will be attached to SCDF ambulances where both SAF and SCDF medical personnel will work closely together

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen announced this in his speech at the opening ceremony of the third Asia Pacific Military Health Exchange (APMHE) at the Ritz Carlton on 23 May.

While the SAF s primary mission is to defend the nation against external threats, Dr Ng noted, using SAF medics to respond to civilian emergencies is synergistic and mutually helpful. This is why the SAF has offered its medics to be deployed on SCDF ambulances.

Said Dr Ng: It will meet the growing demand (for emergency medical procedures as Singapore s population ages) as well as allow our medics to keep their skills current, to better respond in times of military crisis.

He added that the deployed medics would meet all the certified requirements which their SCDF counterparts possessed.

During his address, Dr Ng highlighted the importance of building the capabilities of military medicine practitioners as they were experts who led the responses to modern security challenges, namely in bio-terrorism and control of pandemics.

He also spoke about the key role military medicine communities played in building relations and trust among militaries.

Citing the inaugural ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Military Medicine Exercise in 2013 as an example, Dr Ng said: Military medicine communities often act as a bridge to build relations and trust among militaries.

The exercise brought more than 3,000 military participants from 18 countries closer together as they jointly developed and executed exercise objectives and became the working model for both Experts Working Groups to combine their efforts to conduct ground exercises.

Dr Ng also touched on the need to address Singapore s dwindling manpower. As the pool of SAF personnel is expected to shrink by a third from 2030, the Medical Corps is actively reviewing vocation requirements to increase flexibility and allow more soldiers to be deployed to each vocation.

The IFC also hosted the second ASEAN Maritime Security Information-Sharing Exercise during the same period. Naval officers from ASEAN navies worked together through a set of realistic and challenging exercise scenarios to promote information-sharing and enhance cooperation in handling regional maritime security incidents.

Because of our manpower constraints, each soldier is valuable, whose contributions need to be optimised and put to full use for the nation s defence, explained Dr Ng.

The review will be implemented progressively over the next few years.

Held till 26 May, the third Asia Pacific Military Health Exchange a regional military medicine conference was jointly organised by the SAF and the United States Pacific Command (US PACOM).

Themed Future Challenges and Collaborations in Military Health , the four-day conference involved over 500 delegates from 28 countries, covered contemporary military health issues and featured over 250 oral presentations and posters that shared the operational and research experiences of Asia-Pacific militaries.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the SAF Medical Corps.