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| Facilitator for the workshop, Mr. Peter Burgress |
Charlestown Nevis (March 6, 2006) The Nevis Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in conjunction with the Premier's Ministry, Ministry of Health and the Nevis Air and Sea Ports Authority on Monday commenced a five-day workshop, entitled "Emergency Care and Treatment (ECAT) in Disasters" at the Credit Union Conference Room in Charlestown.
The workshop which targets Police Officers, Fire Officers, EMS Officers and NGO's, was geared towards helping first responders to be able to assist in the event of mass casualty or a disaster prior to advance medical help arriving. The workshop ends on Friday 10, March 2006.
Addressing the gathering at a brief opening ceremony, Premier and Minister responsible for Disaster Management, the Hon Mr Vance Amory said that he was pleased to see so many participants. "I am certain that you would have an excellent experience and that you would learn new skills and where you have already been exposed to similar training. It never hurts to have a refresher to ensure that you are on track and that your mind remains alert and keen to engage in any incident which might warrant your response and your action."
He thanked the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) for its technical assistance and all those who made the workshop possible, adding, One of the things which is so critical for us is that we don't have all the resources, all of the resource personnel to ensure that we are on the cutting edge at all times.
"When we can get someone to come in to provide us with the technical assistance, I believe that we should take advantage of it," he said.
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| Cross section of participants |
Pointing out that training was critical, Premier Amory noted for small countries like Nevis, one must be practically self sufficient, "if we have a disaster at least in the first instance, because we are in this small island situation, which does not allow us to call or have land access to other resources and sometimes resources to enable us to deal with emergencies, they do take a long time to be accessed. We must as far as possible seek to make ourselves at least in the primary sense self sufficient in dealing with disasters of whatever sought."
Facilitator for the workshop, Mr. Peter Burgress, PAHO Barbados gave a brief overview for the week. "We started the emergency care and treatment programme a few years ago because we wanted to help police, fire and militaries mainly throughout the Caribbean, to work with other health care professionals."
He noted that it was a course which teaches first responders to play a part in medical treatment in the event of a disaster or mass casualty. He also noted that too often police officers or fire officers who arrived on the scene first, often engaged in either controlling the crowd, taking information and investigating or as a fire officer provide search and rescue. He however, noted that those first on the scene could also give valuable first aid treatment.
