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ST. PETERS--The St. Maarten Ambulance Service is taking the next step in disaster management training and is increasing the preparedness of its staff for dealing with medical emergencies during disasters.

The White and Yellow Cross and the Netherlands Royal Marines assisted the St. Maarten Ambulance Service on Tuesday, during a special training session in which new medical duty officers ("officier van dienst – geneeskunde") had the chance to practice their leadership skills in a disaster scenario.

The Ambulance Service is currently in the process of training the four new medical duty officers. Medical duty officers are paramedics, who receive additional training to act as leaders and coordinators at the location of an incident. The training is geared towards acting at the scene of incidents during disasters, but can also be used in other scenarios where the ambulance service has to work together with the fire department or the police.

Project manager Lianne van Driel and trainer Hay Geurts are from Regional Ambulance Provision Brabant Mid West-North RAV, one of the largest ambulance services in the Netherlands. Van Driel is a project manager and Geurts is an expert trainer of medical duty officers in the Netherlands. The RAV is active in developing ambulance services on a national level and offers consultancy and training on international level.

The RAV assisted the St. Maarten Ambulance Service at the end of August for a week of orientation and disaster management training, which was funded by Dutch funding agency USONA. The RAV is currently conducting a follow-up training.

Talks are currently underway about possible continued cooperation between the two organisations. A multi-year plan has been proposed and discussions are ongoing between the parties including the Department of Health. Plans include a number of trainings to be organised each year for the next two to three years.

Van Driel said: "The training RAV offers is two-fold. First, to keep the staff up-to-date with all the latest techniques and knowledge and the latest developments, and second, to ensure that the ambulance service fits in well with the process of disaster management."

Van Driel explained that the training is not a one-off event. "It is a process of multiple trainings and we are looking towards a long-term cooperation. In the ambulance service, it is important that people keep their knowledge up to date. Training is important for that."

The four new medical duty officers, during their training, practised taking control of and coordinating the medical side of a disaster or emergency. This includes connecting with the police and the fire department. On Friday, large scale training will take place where the medical duty officers will be training together with the police and the fire department.

Two further blocks of training have been proposed to bring the medical duty officers up to a level that they can pass a similar exam to that completed by duty officers in the Netherlands. "It would be great if, in the future, there could be an exchange between Dutch and St. Maarten medical duty officers," Van Driel said. "To enable this, it is important that the local duty officers and the Dutch duty officers have a similar level of competence. But of course, the training here must be tailor-made for the circumstances on St. Maarten."

Aside from the four duty officers, RAV is also training local trainers. The organisation is also conducting two days of training on Ebola and hazardous chemicals. For this training, ambulance staff will be joined by staff of St. Maarten Medical Centre and SXM Princess Juliana International Airport.

Tuesday's training took place at the Sister Basilia Centre, which will also host Friday's training. The training showed that the location was excellent for use as an emergency field hospital.

Director of the White and Yellow Cross Bregje Boetekees said: "It is important for us to cooperate with this training. We have experience with disaster situations, because when flooding occurs we are often badly affected and closed-off from other areas. The White and Yellow cross is happy to assist."

Cylred Richardson, Director of the Ambulance Service, was also present during the training. He said, "In the process of disaster management, cooperation is extremely important. Situations are best resolved if all parties know exactly what their role is and how they can best work together. The Ambulance Service is committed to playing its role in this process and to offer the best training to its staff."