In the aftermath of Typhoon Chataan, which tore through communities across Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2002, Dr Julius (Jojo) Caesar Arsenal, Chief Surgeon at Chuuk State Hospital, remembers how he and his fellow health workers had “nothing to offer to devastated communities and displaced families, except words of comfort.” Fast-forwarding to 2023, Dr Jojo is now a member of one of the Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) in the Federated States of Micronesia that ensure better preparedness of the country towards future disasters and public health emergencies.
Disasters, such as Typhoon Chataan, have the potential to overwhelm the resources and capabilities of health-care systems. Countries need local medical practitioners who are trained to go beyond routine clinical practice in a hospital environment and adapt to the demands of emergency care. EMTs constitute a critical national resource that can provide uninterrupted life-saving health care to those affected by a disaster, disease outbreak or other types of public health emergencies. EMTs in the Federated States of Micronesia are among 16 others in the Western Pacific Region.
Countries benefit from trained emergency medical teams
EMTs are trained to ensure that personnel have the tools and knowledge to be rapidly deployed to support emergency responses. Training includes familiarizing EMT members with the functions and operations of a first-aid clinic, including mass casualty triage, and how to stabilize and treat casualties before referring them to a hospital. The training also includes communication exercises on the use of radio sets and familiarization with equipment typically used during disaster response.
With funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Government of Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand (MFAT), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific recently facilitated workshops that included full-scale simulation exercises for EMTs in the Cook Islands, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Federated States of Micronesia, New Zealand and Samoa. Medical practitioners who participated in these capacity-building activities learnt how to adapt their professional capacities to a low-resource emergency setting. Simulation exercises that replicated real-life disasters provided participants with an experiential learning environment and allowed them to practice making clinical decisions during various emergency scenarios. EMT training also includes modules on adopting an inventory management system for recording and tracking equipment and supplies, to ensure that EMT kits are well-maintained and in a state of readiness for rapid deployment.
Mazniza Mustaffa shares her experiences on Outbreak Response in a classroom session. Photo credit: Eystein Crusd
Noting the importance of capacity-building for EMTs, Dr Jojo said: “Hospital and airport emergency drills enable medical responders to walk through procedures and processes required during an actual emergency − and test-drive capabilities.” Training modules also incorporate team-building exercises to ensure that EMT members are able to function together as a unit in high-pressure situations. “There are cultural differences among team members that we learnt how to work through during the workshop,” Dr Jojo added.
Through continuous training, simulation exercises and evaluations, WHO and partners ensure that EMTs in the Region can function to their maximum capacity and capability − thereby optimizing health outcomes during an emergency.
Enabling self-reliance during emergency responses across the Pacific
In the Western Pacific, WHO taps regional expertise for capacity-building activities and uses faculty from within the Region to facilitate EMT training, especially those with extensive experience in responding to national and international disasters. Praising this approach, Masniza Mustaffa, Team Lead of MERCY Malaysia’s EMT, who facilitated recent capacity-building activities in the Federated States of Micronesia said, “when you have faculty from the Region, it is easier for them to understand the context and participants are able to relate better to the facilitator and learn from their previous experiences.”
Well-trained EMT members are capable of mounting a self-sufficient national clinical and public health response to a wide range of emergencies. They form a particularly crucial resource for Pacific island countries and areas that require this type of deployable clinical capacity to reach remote and low-resource communities. There are currently 13 established EMTs in the Pacific islands, which have resulted in a significant shift in the ability of small island developing states to respond to public health emergencies with increased self-reliance and capacity to serve their populations, without the need for international assistance.
Going forward, WHO will facilitate additional training to strengthen national EMT capacities across countries in the Western Pacific Region, enabling self-reliance for future emergency responses.