PP122 THE OPTIMIZATION OF A GOVERNMENT PLANNED DISASTER DRILL FOR TRAINING OF EMERGENCY MASTERS STUDENTS: A COST EFFECTIVE AND EASY TO CONDUCT METHOD

Abstract

Introduction: There is a need to have a form of disaster training which is cost effective, relatively easy to conduct, comprehensive, effective and acceptable.¹ This is an example of cost and time saving disaster training which optimizes government agency standard emergency drill.

Case report: On 11^th November 2017, full scale disaster drill was conducted by the administration of Terminal Bersepadu Selatan, which involved Persatuan Bulan Sabit Malaysia, Jabatan Pertahanan Awam Malaysia, Polis Di Raja Malaysia and Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia. Emergency Department PPUKM was invited as to provide medical cover. Prior to the event, a series of table top exercise and lectures were provided to the students. A staged bomb was activated at 0000 hours, followed by announcements to bystanders about the drill. Emergency services were informed by a passerby from the site. Conformation was done from the pre-hospital unit in PPUKM, and disaster was declared followed by the deployment of students and paramedics to the scene. After reporting to the incident commander, a medical base was set in a designated location within the yellow zone. Unfortunately, inaccurate information was given to the medical commander, which led to the positioning of the base at a hazardous location which was adjacent to the second bomb. In addition, the forward field commander instructed victims to be evacuated to a site far from the medical base. The drill ended at 0200 hours, followed by debriefing session.

Discussion and conclusion: Joint disaster training with a public facility drill is a cost effective and easy to conduct teaching method. Staged bombs and moulage victims were provided by the public agencies, which would be a major task if performed by university staff.  A real life scenario and real life problems, such as communication breakdown and inter-agency interaction can be encountered in this method.