Disaster Management 

Following a disaster, natural or man-made, the medical help and aid reaching victims can be divided into three phases:

Phase I: Immediate Response (Days to Weeks)

Phase II: Early Response (Weeks to Months)

Phase III: Late response (Months to Years)

 Immediate Response 

DAYS TO WEEKS

The initial response after a disaster depends on the Nation’s ‘Emergency Preparedness’, the healthcare infrastructure within that country, its economy and geographic location. 

For developed countries, the resources and manpower are available to deliver a coordinated immediate response to the initial disaster. This was observed in the response following the tsunami of March 2011 in Japan compared to the Haitian earthquake in April 2010.

The immediate task for authorities is to initiate evacuation of the victims and send in specialist teams for Search and Rescue.  In the subsequent days, authorities need to establish communications in the affected areas and set up a Field Hospital to deliver urgently required Medical care. The hospitals within the region of the disaster maybe structurally unsound and thus a safety risk for both patients and staff.

All this coordinated mobilization of personnel can take days to initiate and the more geographically isolated and difficult the terrain, the more challenging this task becomes.

Early Response

WEEKS to MONTHS

MiST Foundation (RED MiST) coordinates with the local hospital and sends specialist Ortho-Plastic teams to address orthopaedic problems encountered from the initial disaster.  These include Bone and Soft tissue injuries, infections, mal-unions and untreated injuries from the initial stage of the disaster, due to the large number of causalities.

Teams are dispatched on a rotational basis to treat new patients and follow-up patients already treated by the Foundation. This ensure continuity of care of the patients for some of their complex problems encountered. 

Late Response

MONTHS to YEARS

The three R’s strategy needed for casualties following a disaster are:

Re-housing, Reconstruction of limbs and Rehabilitation of patients.

Our Foundation (ORANGE MiST) with the host hospital can set up a long-term programme to help the injured patients and at the same time, improve the local infrastructure of the hospital which will benefit the local population in the long term.

The Foundation teaches and trains the local surgeons and allied health care professionals. This is achieved by regular visits by teams to the institution, workshops, live surgery and on-line educational courses.

The aim of the Foundation is to leave the institution able to cater for its own local population’s medical needs and in the future little intervention from the Foundation will be necessary.

Orange MiST has now extended its remit and works in countries that have NOT been subjected to a disaster and are in need of help both in infrastructure improvements and training of hospital staff.  

The Foundation instils an ethos in all we teach, we believe to be a CARER of people one needs to be Compassionate, Available, Respectful, Empathise and have Responsibility.