Medivac plan approved

FIFA’s chief emergency sports medicine consultant, professor Efraim Kramer visited this week to assess the country’s ability to provide emergency medical service to the teams participating in the Fifa Under-20 Women’s World Cup to be hosted in Port Moresby in November.
With the World Cup three months away, there have been frequent visits by Fifa officials to ensure that the facilities and the care that will be given to the teams are in place.
During his five-day visit, Kramer and the local organising committee medical team visited the medical and doping control rooms at the four match venues — Sir John Guise Stadium, National Football Stadium, PNG Football Stadium and the Bisini Mini Stadium.
He visited emergency medical service providers St John, International SOS, the PNG Defence Force, the University of Papua New Guinea clinic, Pacific International Hospital and the Port Moresby General Hospital emergency section.
Kramer said he was satisfied with the emergency medical service providers and their ability to attend to emergency cases as well as the emergency evacuation plan.
“Everything is here so there is no problem about that, it is the case of putting everything together so that the different emergency services are able to collaborate and work together during the tournament.
“I am impressed,” Kramer said.
During the Fifa tournament, ambulances, trained nurses and first aiders from these medical emergency response teams will be on standby to deal with emergency cases at the training fields and also at the match venues during the matches.
A section from the Port Moresby General Hospital’s emergency unit will be dedicated to deal with any emergency cases that are brought in by St John Ambulance.
The local organising committee medical services manager Dr Gideon Kendino said that St John’s services provided during the three weeks of the tournament would also be available to the public. He said a group of St John Australian paramedics would be brought in for the tournament and will be available to cater for the public during emergencies.