Photo By Senior Chief Petty Officer Yuri Ramsey | PACIFIC OCEAN (July 20, 2022) Medical personnel from Royal Australian Navy...... read more read more
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During Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, Australia’s Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) HMAS Canberra, has provided a range of opportunities to maximise interchangeability with our coalition partners.
The Primary Casualty Receiving Facility (PCRF) onboard has been a hive of activity with Australian medical specialists working and training alongside United States Navy and New Zealand Defence Force medical specialists.
Senior Royal Australian Navy medical officer Commander Peter Smith said being able to run through multi-casualty scenarios onboard with our international members provides an important capability not only for our team and Navy but for our nation.
“Medical interoperability as much as warfighting interoperability is key and it really matters,” Smith said. “We know we can send Australian medical specialists to U.S. ships to work and we have had whole U.S. surgical teams onboard before for other exercises, but during RIMPAC we have used a different model bringing select members onboard to augment our Australian equivalents and have proved blended teams work.”
The coalition medical team worked through a grenade explosion scenario where it received a number of casualties suffering burns, and blast trauma, with another casualty in cardiac arrest.
Smith said the team were highly effective and were also able to simulate performing life-saving surgery.
“We exercised our blood transfusion protocols to deliver large amounts of blood product to patients quickly as well as demonstrating an ability to provide ongoing intensive care.”
The ship’s medical emergency team (SMET) onboard are the first responders and in a civilian comparison act like an ambulance service, administering immediate aid before moving casualties to the PCRF.
For them to be involved in the whole evolution was an opportunity to peek behind the surgical curtain; to assist and observe, appreciating the value of their initial assessments and casualty handovers.
Able Seaman Rebecca Middleton is one of the Maritime Operational Health Unit medics who received the casualties from the SMET during their exercise said it’s really important to get an accurate handover of the casualty picture from the SMETs.
“I have responsibility for documenting all relevant patient information and interventions,” Middleton said. “The exercise went really well, it’s good to work with the U.S and New Zealand members too and as a new resuscitation team we gelled really quickly.”
“We are just in the process of trialing new trauma documentation, which I have helped create, so for me working through the scenario was a highlight for me, seeing how successful it was and knowing it will work for the future.”
The team will continue to train through various scenarios during the RIMPAC’s sea phase, appreciating the tactical flexibility our coalition medical team has to integrate now and into the future.
Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, three submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
(Story by Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Nancy Cotton)
| Date Taken: | 07.20.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.01.2022 21:46 |
| Story ID: | 426193 |
| Location: | PHILIPPINE SEA |
| Web Views: | 152 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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