Members of the UBC MGM team and the BC Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) team were invited to Everett, Washington to participate in the Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS) course hosted by Snohomish Fire One. Thanks so much to the Washington team for welcoming the 6 Canadian guests, including Dr. Omar Ahmad (ringleader and MMU Assoc. Medical Director), Dr. Graham Dodd (provincial diaster expert), Dr. Sheila Turris (MGM Chair and researcher), Jordan Myers (MGM Operations expert), Sean Vaisler (MGM Communications guru and Emergency Management Masters students) and myself. Kerrie Lewis, our Registry Coordinator and logistics expert was also invited, but came down with a case of man-flu <1>, and had to send her regrets.
BDLS is an 8 hour, content-filled course supported by the United States National Disaster Life Support Foundation, designed to engage health professionals across the spectrum from Public Health, through first responders in the field, to first receivers in the hospital, and hospital leadership, who may have to manage planning for disasters in their own community, or have a role in responding to disasters in neighbouring communities. And, in case you are wondering, yes, there is also an ADLS, or Advanced Disaster Life Support.
It is our hope that after experiencing this course, we may be able to bring it to Canada, or to look at an adaptation that contextualizes it to the Canadian context. In the United States, hospitals MUST have a baseline level of disaster planning and are supposed to host two exercises PER YEAR! I wish. The fiscal environment in Canada does not presently support significant planning, training and practicing of disaster medicine in our public health care institutions. While we all have a Code Orange binder “somewhere”, little resources are presently available to expose it to, and rehearse it with the front-line staff, and there is rarely time or funding to invest in inter-agency exercises.
Our team’s perspective also comes from the “event medicine” angle. After experiencing BDLS, we can see some immediate areas where we can bring value to volunteers and event teams overall in aligning some language with the emergency management and disaster medicine communities. Those coming out and giving their time at events will be able to increasingly bring the tools back to their homes, their workspaces and their institutions to improve disaster readiness. More on this in the future!
Thank you once again to our amazing hosts!
Adam
Dr. Adam Lund
Emergency Physician
Mass Gathering Medicine Interest Group
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