Mini clinics provide extra support in health emergency
If a tornado hits Regina and there are multiple casualties or if a major illness sweeps through a community, Garnet Matchett can now call the Public Health Agency of Canada and request a mini clinic be sent to Saskatchewan.
“Quite often what you’ll get is a circumstance called convergence where people are looking for limited resources for survival so everybody goes to the hospital,” said Matchett, director of operations for the Ministry of Health’s Health Emergency Management Unit.
The mini clinic can be set up in a large room approximately 1,250 square feet or in an area like a school gym or a mall close to the emergency site.
“You can triage people and give them some baseline treatment and only those who need to go to the hospital then are transferred there, so it takes the stress off the hospital,” Matchett said.
“But it also has a benefit of seeing people very quickly and getting care for them very quickly.”
Mini clinics are a new addition to the Public Health Agency’s National Emergency Stockpile System (NESS). Matchett was impressed when he got his first look at the clinic, which was set up inside the T.C. Douglas Building on Saturday.
“It’s new, it’s modern and it’s extremely well designed,” Matchett said. “It expands our capability and gives us a wider spectrum of response.”
The clinic is stocked with wheelchairs, stretchers, about a dozen beds and a crash cart. In addition, supplies such as bandages, face shields, splints, crutches, casting materials, syringes, scalpels, disposable gowns and towels and cotton and wool blankets are packed in plastic containers.
If required, X-ray and digital imaging equipment can be transported to the clinic.
Within 24 hours of a request for a mini clinic, it is sent to the area requiring emergency assistance from supply points across Canada. The clinic can be set up within two to four hours.
The mini clinic will be deployed with the assistance of St. John Ambulance volunteer Medical First Responders.
“Whenever there is an emergency in the province, St. John Ambulance gets put on standby,” said Cassenna Parmeter, an instructor and trainer with St. John. “We work hand-in-hand with the Red Cross, with emergency preparedness and with NESS — it’s wherever we’re required, we go out and give our services.
“Our levels of training range from a First Aider to a physician, so we come well prepared for what’s required.”
Parmeter estimates 150 people can be treated for minor injuries at the clinic in a six- to eight-hour period.
This past winter, she was among the St. John Ambulance volunteers who responded to a string of motor vehicle collisions that involved 79 people outside of Moose Jaw.
“It would have been an asset to have this mini clinic out there,” she said.
Saskatchewan belongs to the Pacific NorthWest Border Health Alliance, which is a cross-border collaboration with Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington as well as British Columbia and the Yukon.
“We’re planning and training to respond together for major emergencies,” Matchett said. “You look at things like Hurricane Sandy or Katrina or unfortunately things like 9/11. There was Canadian response in that ...
“There’s been an increase in the number of events and we’re also seeing an increase in the impact of those events. The insurance people, interestingly enough, tell us that it is probably going to get worse.”
The rising number of events isn’t limited to flooding or tornadoes, but can also include disasters involving hazardous materials.
“We’ve urbanized our population so a lot of people live in tighter circumstances than they used to when we were a rural-based population. So if you have something that impacts a large urban community, it impacts more people,” Matchett said.
He urges people to prepare for a major emergency.
“You need to be able to keep your family safe and provide the basics for them for 72 hours while the formal response system gets geared up to respond,” Matchett said.
The mini clinics are in addition to five 200-bed units already in Saskatchewan.
“In 2006 when most of the north was on fire, we evacuated 3,700 people to Saskatoon and Regina and P.A.,” Matchett said. “The beds and blankets from the NESS system were what supported us through that.”