By Alva Solomon

OFFICIALS from 12 organisations will this week improve their awareness of mass casualty management at venues across the country.On Monday morning, the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) in collaboration with the Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and the Ministry of Public Health commenced a training exercise on mass casualty management at the CDC headquarters on Thomas Lands, Georgetown.

The event runs until Saturday and CDC Director General, Chabilall Ramsaroop in his address to participants cited the importance of the training sessions.

“What is important for me and the Civil Defence Commission of Guyana is that we will have trained persons,” he said, as he recounted the July 2011 Caribbean Airlines plane crash.

At the time, he said there was a struggle to “decide who is to do what”, adding that there was subsequent training of airport staff to improve on response.
He said that once there is a mass gathering of large number of persons, there should be a command post or what he termed a venue operations centre which would coordinate responses to an incident.

“In Guyana, there are a number of venues and activities which can cause problems,” he noted.

Colonel Ramsaroop added that at a recent meeting, Minister of State Joseph Harmon pointed out that a command post was not set up for a recent activity which involved children and which was attended by President David Granger.
He said that in some countries it is embedded in law, that when there is a mass gathering of persons, the organiser must obtain the permission from the CDC or the disaster office.

“They (the CDC) should go to the scene and ensure everything is put in place so that when there is (an) incident, lives can be saved,” he added.

According to the WHO, major emergencies, crises and disasters have become more frequent during recent decades in middle and low income countries.
They affect more and more people, disrupting health sector programmes and essential services, and slowing the process of sustainable human development.
Many lives could be saved if the affected communities were better prepared with an organised scalable response system already in place, the WHO said.

In addition, survivors of mass casualty incidents often suffer disabilities or health impairment – physical or psychological, the WHO said.