Around 150 medics from across the Royal Navy will converge off the South Coast next month for their biggest test in two years. They’ll join the Fleet’s floating hospital facility on RFA Argus for a three-week exercise to test their abilities – and the unique facilities aboard – in coping with casualties of war at sea, using lessons they’ve learned in Afghanistan.
Around 150 personnel from the medical world will converge on Britain’s dedicated casualty treatment ship, RFA Argus, for the three weeks of Exercise Medical Endeavour.
Many of the medics are freshly returned from Afghanistan and will use their experiences dealing with battle casualties in the field hospital at Camp Bastion in a similar facility aboard Argus.
The auxiliary features a state-of-the-art treatment centre – offically it’s not a hospital, but the Primary Casualty Receiving Facility – split over three decks, with an operating theatre, CT scanner, X-Ray facilities, an intensive care unit, high-dependency ward and two general wards. In all, it can cope with 100 patients.
The aim of the medical centre is to provide life-saving support and stabilise the wounded so that they can be flown back to the UK for long-term care – just like in Helmand.
The facility was last used for real during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but even in peacetime it has a permanent staff to look after it and is at five days’ notice to be activated.
Its team look after some 2,500 different items in the store, while making sure that some 600 pieces of machinery are in full working order.
The three weeks of Medical Endeavour will see doctors, nurses, anaesthetists, medical technicians, and Royal Marines musicians acting as stretcher bearers, joining Argus to bring the hospital to life – for some it will be their first taste of life at sea – while actors and sailors will play the part of casualties.
Staff will be expected to deal with the full range of injuries they might expect in a 21st Century conflict – in this instance conflict off the fictional country of Gwamalia in the Horn of Africa: wounds caused by gunfire, home-made bombs, burns and also troops psychologically traumatised by war.
Although no operations will be performed, for the sake of realism, patients will be left in the theatre for the same length of time as their operations would last.
Staff will also be expected to cope with equipment breaking down and the evacuation of Argus by putting casualties on special stretchers and lowering them down slides into liferafts. It’s the first time any attempt has been made to evacuate the complex.
“I love this facility,” said Argus’ permanent Hospital Officer Lt Karen McCullough .
“There’s nothing in the hospital in Camp Bastion that we can’t do here.
“Medical Endeavour is hard work, but it gives naval medics confidence that the hospital works if it’s activated.
“It’s great to see the place buzzing and to see the staff light up when they see that everything is working.”
The exercise is due to reach its climax over five days, beginning March 12.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff , February 13, 2012; Image: royalnavy