SAF WORKS WITH MOH IN EVACUATION DRILLS

Argentinian writer Jose Narosky once said that "in war, there are no unwounded soldiers".

To ensure that wounded soldiers will be taken care of and brought to safety in operations, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Medical Corps and personnel from the Ministry of Health (MOH) were put through their paces in a joint exercise on 11 Mar.

The exercise has been carried out every three to five years since 1990 mainly to test the planning, coordinating and executing of casualty evacuation and management in the heat of ongoing operations. At the same time, the sharing of information between the different units of the Medical Corps and MOH in the transportation of casualties is also put into practice.

While previous exercises only involved evacuating casualties from the front line to homeland hospitals, this year's exercise had a new component - an Operational Medical Centre (OMC) to tend to homeland war casualties.

During peacetime, the OMC is actually an SAF medical centre mainly helmed by Full-time National Servicemen. But during operations, this setup is transformed to provide medical support for homeland casualties.

In this year's exercise, casualties were transported from a simulated battle front all the way to Alexandra Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, with a Medical Company and a Combat Support Hospital (CSH) set up in between to ensure that the casualties remain in a stable condition along the way.

Although just a set-up of tents and containers in the field, advanced medical facilities were available at the CSH. Equipped to perform life-sustaining and limb-saving surgeries, the CSH had an operating theatre, a laboratory, a blood bank and about 50 doctors.

Such facilities and manpower allow the CSH to "cope with up to 200 casualties at any one time and perform up to 20 major surgeries a day", said Major (Dr) (NS) Mark Tang, Officer Commanding, Bravo Company, 2nd CSH.

Should casualties require further medical attention at the CSH, a HEliborne Medical Evacuation (HEME) team is deployed to evacuate casualties to homeland hospitals. The HEME team is also equipped with the Air Mobile Life Support Unit II which allows it to perform Intensive Care Unit-type surgeries while in the air.

The exercise, which involved many NSmen, proved to be a challenging one to men from this group as many are not in medical professions.

Although they commented to cyberpioneer that they were unfamiliar with new medical procedures, their earlier In-Camp Training (ICT) had provided them with ample training in preparation for this exercise.

"It was quite a challenge to go through some new procedures, but during ICT, we were updated on the equipment and training methodology, and we had Medical Officers who helped us out," said 2nd Sergeant (NS) Amir Hamzah, a senior medic at the CSH, who is a teacher in Victoria School.

He added: "As NSmen, we play a critical part in Singapore's defence, and it's good that we can be relied upon in times of crisis to give our soldiers peace of mind when they are deployed."