Fiji’s emergency medical assistance team – FEMAT – trains to face future crises

FEMAT is a Type 1 Emergency Medical Team (EMT), meaning that it has been verified by WHO as being capable of deploying and running field clinics both within Fiji and overseas.

To receive this verification, an EMT must be able to set up a field clinic from scratch, carrying all the equipment and supplies to enable them to do that, and to provide a quality of care that meets at least minimum global standards. 

 

Namosi in the highlands of the main island of Viti Levu.

The location was chosen for the training due to its remoteness and lack of plumbed water, electricity and mobile phone connectivity – the ideal place to simulate a situation where essential services have been disrupted.

To ensure that they do not place an additional burden on crisis-affected communities, any WHO-verified emergency medical team must be completely self-sufficient, providing their own food, clean water and accommodation. Holding the training in Namosi therefore provided an opportunity to test FEMAT’s self-reliance, with the team setting up accommodation tents and collecting and filtering river water, for example. 

Mr Vimal Deo, Chief Health inspector at Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services, leads the team to quickly assemble one of the team accommodation tents.

Everyone participates and the tent is assembled in minutes. Working quickly and as team is critical to a successful deployment.

FEMAT nurses and doctors prepare the main trauma treatment tent to be ready for incoming patients during the simulation exercise.

 

FEMAT team-members practice filling out the WHO-provided Minimum Data Set template.

Even though time is short during an emergency, it is essential that brief but accurate records are kept for each patient treated. Some of the patients will require follow-up care, for example, and the health worker providing that care will need to know what was done previously. The data can also be fed back to the EMT coordination cell to inform planning and decision-making.

 

The first pretend patients arrive even as the field hospital is still being set up.

WHO’s Simon Cowie simulates a badly injured patient while the triage assessment team assists him.

Having a well-established triage process helps ensure that the limited resources available during a mass casualty incident can be used where they can be most effective in saving lives.

The triage assessment team determine that Simon’s pretend injuries mean that he should be prioritized for treatment in the trauma tent.

As the FEMAT trauma team simulate treating him, Simon is assessing the team’s performance so he can let them know later what they did well and what can be improved next time.

Some of the ‘patients’ during the exercise are acted out by WHO or Ministry staff.

Others are just descriptions on a card. Even when the patient is just a paragraph, the trauma clinic team’s response is serious, knowing that one day they may face the real thing.

In this scenario, a pregnant mother is about to give birth. The team administers the appropriate medical attention, and a healthy baby boy is delivered.

Sean Casey and the rest of the WHO team are present throughout the exercise, assessing the team’s performance and providing advice.

WHO has been actively involved in supporting FEMAT since it was first launched in 2016 and has also supported the establishment, training and provisioning of EMTs in other Pacific island countries and areas including the Cook Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The Organization’s work to establish and enhance EMT capacity in the Pacific is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the European Union, the Government of Japan, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

 

It was a long and exhausting week, but well worth the effort.

Already veterans in responding to several emergencies including Tropical Cyclones Harold and Sarai and the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMAT will be even better prepared to respond to the crises which will arise in future.