Dr.
Orlando Ocampo, president of the Philippine Society of Surgery
for Trauma (PSST), delivers a lecture on Trauma Epidemiology to
participant-doctors at the Trauma Training course conducted by
the PSST and the ICRC from 2-4 October 2015 in Davao City.
(By
NC-ND/ ICRC/ R. Ang) |
Doctors trained in
treatment of weapon-wounded patients
By ICRC
October 2, 2015
MANILA – Over 30
surgeons, anaesthesiologists and physicians from private and
government hospitals are participating in a three-day training course
to enhance their capacity to treat patients wounded by weapons or
explosives.
The training course, which
starts today in Davao City, will be conducted jointly by the
Philippine Society of Surgery for Trauma (PSST), under the Philippine
College of Surgeons, and the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC).
"The objective is to enhance
the capacity of health-care providers to respond more efficiently to
the specific medical and surgical needs of people wounded by weapons
owing to armed violence," explains Beatriz Karottki, the ICRC's health
programme coordinator in the Philippines. "It encompasses pre-hospital
care, triage, hospital care and post-operative care, including
rehabilitation."
Topics dealing with trauma
management, such as assessment of injuries, wound care and anaesthesia,
will be presented by specialists from the PSST, while the Davao
Jubilee Foundation, a non-profit institution providing services to
people with disabilities, will talk about amputation, physical
rehabilitation and prostheses-fitting. An ICRC surgeon, Dr. Martin
Herrmann, will share the ICRC’s experience in war-wound treatment and
wound ballistics.
As part of its mandate, the
ICRC supports the medical treatment of people wounded in armed
conflict. In Mindanao, it provides assistance to five key hospitals
and conducts various training for medical personnel. With the
Philippine Red Cross, it organizes first-aid training for health
workers and local government responders in rural health units in Agusan del Sur, Maguindanao and North Cotabato, and for displaced
communities in Zamboanga.
The ICRC is a neutral,
impartial and independent humanitarian organization whose mandate is
to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict and other
situations of violence. It has had an established presence in the
Philippines for over 60 years.