Prince Mit'eb Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, the head of the National Guard for Executive Affairs inaugurated the first international conference in the Kingdom on emergency medical services - called “Disaster Medicine” - Monday at the Jeddah Westin hotel. Organized by the Health Affairs Department at the National Guard Hospital, King Abdulaziz Medical City, the three-day conference discussed 23 work papers issued by medical experts from within the Kingdom and abroad to ascertain the best kind of health services in disaster circumstances. “The objective of this event was to define emergency medical services, the development of ambulance services and the identification of medical criterion in a crowd of pilgrims - with respect to the Haj,” remarked Dr. Bandar Al-Qanawi, General Manager of Executive Affairs at the National Guard Hospital. According to Dr. Al-Qanawi, a number of workshops on ambulance services and their role during potential disaster situations focus on evacuation via air transport as well as disease outbreak. “One important feature of Disaster Medicine is the margin for human errors, including negligence or technical failure,” explained Dr. Ali Al-Sharif, a consultant within the emergency department at the National Guard Hospital. “Another feature is of a socio-political nature, including hostilities, human cost and economic consequences.” According to Dr. Al-Sharif, modern societies have started organizing and implementing disaster management as a kind of organized community response to catastrophes, in order to reduce the resulting human and economic cost. “This has resulted in the emergence of a new branch or medical field, called ‘disaster medicine',” he added. Topics discussed during the conference included the concept of this new field, the involvement of a variety of health sectors, types of disasters, chemical and radiological consequences and the tools on hand to deal with possible disasters during heavy pilgrimage seasons. In addition, more specific areas of concern such as swine flu, medical ethics during disaster management, transportation of medical personnel and equipment as well as technical communication were also discussed, according to Dr. Al-Sharif. One of the speakers, Dr. Hani Baroom, who is the head of the emergency Services at King Abdulaziz Medical City and member of the Supervisory authority for the Haj Medical Commission, highlighted the necessity of such a conference prior to the Haj this year. “The objective is to provide services geared to the needs of patients,” he said.
