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Humanity First Medical January 2013 Update. Humanity First Medical Course.

Mr. Kalpesh Diyar (Fire & Rescue) teaches ABC

techniques and demonstrating basic principles of

resuscitation on manikins on one of the Humanity

First teaching modules in Uganda

January 2013(Vol 4, Issue 1)

Welcome to the Humanity First Medical update.

With these updates, we aim to keep you

informed about Humanity First medical

activities and talk about the latest in news and

controversies, in relation to our line of work

with these updates.

Please visit our website

Humanity First Medical

for more about our activities, contribution to

this newsletter or to contact members of the

Humanity First Medical team.

I wish our readership a very happy 2013.

A New Year Message from

Mr Shahnawaz RasheedMedical Director Humanity First &

Consultant at The Royal Marsden, London

Dear all,

2012 has been a good year for HFMedical in which we have run two

Disaster Response Courses in the UK andone in Toronto for HF Canada and USA

combined. To date, we have run 10Courses and trained over 200 people. Wewere also asked by UK-Med to help run

DR Courses for the UK InternationalTrauma Register on behalf of the

Department for InternationalDevelopment (DfID). We set up and ranthe first of these in July with excellent

feedback and our template is being used

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Disaster Response Course; A world

away from medical school

manikins

Dr Fiona BaileyDr Anna Poon

Dr Nathalie CourtoisDr Justine Lowe

St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College

Healthcare NHS trust

Introduction

Humanity First (HF) is a charity thatpromotes human life and dignity. It runs

multiple programmes to improve thelives of the world’s poorest and most

vulnerable people. Responding tointernational disasters, providing

medical aid through relief projects andmore recently developing several

sustainable initiatives around the world.It was first established in 1991 and in2006 it acquired special consultative

status of the United Nations Educationand Social Cultural Organisation

(UNESCO) as a non- governmentalorganization (NGO). Humanity First

Medical Team have developed a uniqueinternational disaster response course,

which now runs in the UK, USA andCanada.

The Course

on subsequent courses to train cliniciansto be deployed on behalf of the BritishGovernment. We will continue to be

involved with these courses but will alsocontinue to run HF Courses in the UK

and North America.

We are hoping to establish our HF FieldHospital for deployment to disasters and

aim to have the first part of thiscompleted by the middle of 2013. If wecontinue on the same trajectory as weare on at present, we should be placedamong the best disaster response teamsin the world before long. This dependson keeping our personnel engaged and

active as well as improving ouroperating systems and procedures.

Also in 2013, we are planning to havefour trips deployed to The Gambia and

two to Uganda. The Gambiadevelopment project that we are

launching is really exciting – there is arelatively small population in a country

where HF has been established for anumber of years and has excellent

contacts. We are hoping that we cancombine clinical treatment with training

to improve the health of the countrysignificantly by our intervention. We willneed clinicians to volunteer in 2013 and

beyond – if we can work here withclearly defined objectives in a

structured way, we can improve childand adult mortality and morbidity in a

really effective way.

I would like to thank our Team who havecontinued to work tirelessly for HF overthe last year. We must continue with ourefforts as there is still much to be done

both in disaster response and also inlong-term projects to improve the lives

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Run over three days, it aims to prepare

both medics and non-medics toparticipate in a disaster response teamessentially bringing together a range ofindividuals to provide expertise from

various backgrounds. The wide variety ofnon-medics ranged from businesspeople; IT technicians; Quantity

Surveyors; international health studentsand a retired Major from the Pakistan

Army.

Run by a variety of professionals withvast experience of providing medical aidto disaster zones; it combines engaginglectures with simulation to produce a

very interactive roller-coaster program!The faculty includes inspirational

specialists in the NHS and members ofthe UK branch of ISAR (International

Search and Rescue Team) with supportprovided by fist aid volunteers and

experienced actors.

This course provides delegates with theclosest experience to providing care in a

disaster environment, encouragingleadership, managerial and

communication skills essential to adisaster response team. Medical aspects

as well as team building and publicspeaking skills were assessed. Followingsuccessful completion participants are

added to a database, from which aresponse team of volunteer medical

staff, logisticians and engineers can beassembled. The length of deployment isusually two weeks, to ensure resilience

in such intense environments. Thismakes it more accessible for hospital

doctors, as extended leave woulddifficult to arrange and may affect

training.

of the many people affected by povertyand disease.

Happy New Year!

All the best,

Shahnawaz

Consultant prospective- Dr Justine

Lowe and Dr Nathalie Courtois,Consultant Anaesthetists, St Mary’s

Hospital, Imperial College HealthcareNHS Trust

My colleagues call me a “course-aholic”.If there is a course to learn how to do aparticular skill I’m not good at, I’ll signup. As a consequence, I feel somewhat

qualified to identify a good coursecompared to a bad one. A good coursetakes you on a journey of learning. Itgives you that “ahahh“ or light bulb

moment and you leave feeling inspiredto learn more.

I first heard about the HF UK DisasterManagement course through a surgical

colleague I work with (also the HFdeputy medical director). Across the

operating table we were discussing theTrauma Education structure I had helpedto organise at St Mary’s since we opened

as one of 4 Major Trauma Centres in

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Trainees Prospective- Dr Bailey andDr Poon FY2

We initially heard informally about thecourse through a senior at work, who

was inspiring to listen to, especially asthis coincided with the Japanese

Tsunami. We saw first-hand how thisorganisation was able to mobilise a team

of medical aid to help with the relief,whilst decisions and updates were

considered round the clock back in theUK to ensure their safety. The more we

heard the more questions we had,including – how can we get involved?

Therefore we jumped at the opportunityto participate in their DisasterManagement Course. It soundedintriguing, intense and a little

unimaginable regarding what was instore for us, but would provide the

prospect of helping those in need at themost vulnerable time in their life.

On enrolling we were expecting a

challenging weekend that would pushour boundaries and we were not

disappointed. The course was devised togive participants a structure for disaster

management response through anexperience outside the box and their

comfort zone! Personal highlightsincluded incredible talks from

international experts who shared theirinvolvement and knowledge of disaster

management; whilst the demandingscenarios provided invaluable one-to-

one assessment and feedback onmedical management. It was an

experience a world away from courseswith manikins and drove each individualto think on their feet, under pressure innon-encountered, almost overwhelmingsituations. The prime lesson learnt wasthe importance of acting with humanityin such inconceivable environments and

London. I asked this colleague to do alecture about Ocular trauma and inreturn I would attend this course he

helped to run. I have to admit I was alittle skeptical. I eat my words.

My anaesthetic colleague and I were,from the beginning of Day 1 of the HFcourse, impressed by the dedication,

absolute sincerity and enthusiasm of thefaculty. It also ran with military-likeprecision and it was organised to the

minute (definitely because of thepresence of the ISAR team). The course

itself ran a combination of novelworkshops and lectures that involved

teambuilding, vital elements of disasterresponse including logistics, security and

communication. You are given abackground as to how the well-knownorganisations like the WHO and UN and

NGOs such as MSF and Red Cross(amongst others) fit together when adisaster happens in the world such as

the Indonesian tsunami or Haitiearthquake. The course provides very

real and overwhelming moulages run atthe local fire station and in the field(literally). There are world experts

lecturing from the British military andJohn Hopkins University with realexperience. All the participating

delegates left tired but excited, full ofrespect for those who volunteer to helpothers in times of literal disaster, but inmy mind, most importantly, we walked

away with skills that no other 3 daycourse offers. It is run like an ATLS

course, but on steroids and with a twist,and yet at extremely reasonable cost.

All proceeds go directly to the charity orthe running costs of the course. HF also

receives donations from generousindustry sponsors and of course the

valuable time of the volunteer faculty.For anyone interested in humanitarian

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we were humbled by the variety ofprofessionals willing to participate andvolunteer in Humanity First projects.

Don't worry! Vehicles follow left hand driving in

Uganda.

Please visit our website

Humanity First Medical

for more about our activities, contribution to

this newsletter or to contact members of the

Humanity First Medical team.

work or disaster relief, this course is adefinite must.

Conclusions

In summary, the course was challenging

across all medical levels and highlyrecommended from SHOs to consultantsinterested in participating in humanity

aid work. Giving a real sense ofachievement in understanding the

disaster response team, confidence inmanaging chaos and building bonds withindividuals sharing the same passion toprovide help with humanity to those in

need.

Those who are interested to attend orwish to register interest for the

Humanity First Disaster Responsecourse please click the picture (link)

below to take you to the course detailsand registration form

All photographs in this newsletter are copyrighted by Humanity First International (UK)

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