The newly formed Samoa Emergency Medical Assistance Team (SEMAT) continues to refine its response capability with a recent training workshop at Lalomanu beach and Namu’a Island.

The SEMAT personnel attended the workshop from 14–18 November which also included a practical session at Namu'a island on the last day of their training.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) facilitated the workshop at Lalomanu which attracted over 40 participants from various stakeholders, who focused on building the capacity of the specialised medical emergency team.

The Acting Director General for Health, Dr. Glenn Fatupaito said it was time to put the theoretical ideas into practice. 

"The Ministry conducted a five day exercise at Lalomanu beach to put theory into practice with a practical simulation on the last day held at Namu'a island so we now have a preliminary team to start this initiative," he said.

"Given Samoa’s unique experience with occurring disasters and pandemics as well as our interaction with overseas emergency medical teams such as the Australian Medical Assistance Team and the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team during our 2019 measles epidemic, a new initiative to set up our very own Emergency Medical Team was started last week.”

According to Dr. Fatupaito, the composition of the new specialised team is being supported by frontliners including the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) and the Ministry of Police Prisons and Corrections Services.

"In conceptual terms, this specialised team is comprised of a core team of medical professionals supported by front-liners, such as FESA and the Ministry of Police to assist with potential national deployments, whilst under the mandate of the Disaster Advisory Committee and N.E.O.C. with a coordination cell comprised of the same.”

As part of the specialised team’s further upskilling, the Acting Director General for Health made reference to training and consultation that was held at the Taumeasina Island Resort on 14 November for the wider stakeholders group including the Ministry of Finance and the Disaster Management Office.

"This core group selected for the SEMAT were taken through the minimum standards and guiding principles for EMTs operating in different contexts and were introduced to concepts such as EMT coordination, activation mechanisms, technical standards for clinical care and operational support, including logistics and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) principles," he added. 

Giving more details on the team’s final day of training at Namu'a Island, Dr. Fatupaito said the participating team members did simulation, to put into practice what the officers learnt during the week-long training.

"On the final day of the exercises, a whole day simulation was initiated to put theory into action which saw the team deploy to Namu’a Island via sea-craft to test their logistics, camp setup, search and rescue procedure, triage and rendering of emergency medical assistance through evolving scenarios produced by the course conveners on the day," the Acting Health Director General said. 

One of the conveners of the specialised training from Australia, Anthony Cook, told the Samoa Observer that he was impressed with the group's final assessment. 

Dr. Fatupaito added that further capacity building exercises for the newly conceived initiative will be conducted over the next few months, with a plan to formulate a Savai’i-based team in April or May next year.