VIDEO/PHOTOS: MDA Leads A Multi-Casualty Incident Drill In Chile

(VIDEO AND PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Last month representatives of a Magen David Adom mission arrived to Santiago, the capital of Chile, in order to hold a joint drill of a multi-casualty incident * MDA Director-General Eli Bin: “I welcome every activity in which people donate their knowledge and experience people are benefit from , in Israel and abroad ”

At the initiative of the Israeli Embassy in Santiago (Ambassador Eldad Hayat and Deputy Ambassador Yonatan Bar-El), about a month ago (December 10-13 2018) a workshop was held about a multi-casualty incident in Santiago, the capital of Chile, organized by the Embassy in cooperation with the Director of SAMU in the District of Santiago (SAMU REGION METROPOLITANA – RM), Municipality of LAS CONDES and MDA.

The workshop was attended by about 100 participants; managers from Santiago’s main ambulances services, university representatives, police, fire fighters, army, situation room of Santiago Health Ministry, Institute of Pathology, Ministry of Crisis Management (ONEMI), Santiago, hospital and LAS CONDES municipality.

The workshop was opened by the deputy mayor of LAS CONDES who came to observe the exercise by himself and praised it.

During the first two days of the workshop, the participants learned about the MDA model for managing a multi-casualty incidents, managing a local team and formulating a local model for managing a multi-casualty incident. On the third day of the workshop, the drill took place and the following day (on the fourth day) a working meeting was held, led by the SAMU RM manager, to summarize a work plan.

The drill was initiated by the Israeli Ambassador to Santiago, Eldad Hayat and his deputy Yonatan Bar-El, participated LAS CONDES municipality in the evacuation of the 15-storey municipality building, three fire departments, the Santiago district health department command post, volunteer psychologists, the Red Cross in Chile, representatives of the police and ambulances from 10 different organizations. This was the first time that an inter-organizational drill of this extent has taken place. It should be noted that MDA has maintains working relations with SAMU (the organizing framework of the public EMS services in Chile) since their establishment in the 1990s, when MDA was a partner in the establishment of various services throughout the country, various training programs and participation in conferences and professional meetings.

MDA Director General, Eli Bin: “Magen David Adom is part of the International Red Cross and is always ready to reach out and assist anywhere in the world. We share the knowledge and experience wherever there is a need and intention to save lives. Chile is also in need of a strong system capable of dealing with disaster events. We are happy to contribute from our experience to improving and strengthening the emergency medical system there and anywhere else in the world and are doing all we can to help the rescue forces develop and acquire life-saving skills. I would like to thank the Israeli Ambassador to Chile, Eldad Khayat, and his deputy, Yonatan Barel, for their initiative and cooperation in the hope that it will bear fruit in the future.