Canadian military adds medical technicians to air force helicopter crews

[old medic]

Canadian military adds medical technicians to air force helicopter crews

By MURRAY BREWSTER
22 January 2010
Copy at: http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/canada/article/430835

OTTAWA - People injured in Canada's hinterlands and survivors of disasters like the Haitian earthquake have another reason to be thankful for air force rescue: medical technicians are being added to flight crews.

The war in Afghanistan and the deployment of an air wing to Kandahar have prompted the military to train some of its helicopter crews and medics in air casualty evacuation.

The air force chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Andres DesChamps, said it is an important skill set that will be kept up even after Canada withdraws its forces from Afghanistan in 2011.

"It augments our capacity," DesChamps said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

In the early phases of the war, Canadian troops wounded on the battlefield relied on U.S. Blackhawk helicopters for evacuation back to NATO's multi-national hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

A Defence Department review in 2006 recommended the air force develop is own air ambulance capability. But it was only realized in late 2008 with Ottawa's deployment of CH-146 Griffon helicopters and CH-47D Chinooks to Kandahar.

NATO maintains a pool of helicopters and crews for casualty support and Canadians added to that, transporting not only Canadian soldiers, but Americans, British and Dutch troops wounded in action.

The medics will not be asked to perform some of the more dangerous assignments that search-and-rescue technicians conduct, but they will be on hand once a casualty is aboard. Search-and-rescue technicians are already qualified in emergency first aid, but the medics focus more on immediate life-saving care.

Ten medics were part of the initial training program and the air force hopes to run as many as 40 per year through the course.

Most of the new technicians are deployed overseas, but some are slated for duty at next month's Olympics, adding to civilian capacity.

Rear-Admiral Tyrone Pile, the commander of Joint Task Force Games in Vancouver, said the primary role of the med techs will be to treat potential Canadian Forces casualties, but they will be available for other assignments.

"If we're needed, if our capabilities are needed to save life, we will be there," he said.

It is also a skill set that could be crucial in future humanitarian relief missions, such as the one ongoing in Haiti.

Helicopters were first used by the U.S. military to evacuate casualties during the Korean War, but it wasn't until the conflict in Vietnam that the system was refined and developed.

Specially-trained medical corpsmen were brought on board and researchers noted an increase in the survivablility of soldiers. The success prompted authorities to experiment with the use of paramedics on civilian air ambulances in the States.

Americans were not the sole pioneers in this field. The province of Saskatchewan started using fixed-wing aircraft as air ambulances shortly after the Second World War to service remote communities, and the practice continues.

 

[Armymedic]

Been saying we need this for years. There is a Air medevac course that deals with strategic evac, but no course that deals with tactical evac. We have had guys doing it off the seat of their pants for years.

 

[kj_gully]

Man, They sure are spending a lot of money on me to maintain my Emergency First Aid! Maybe I should remuster and get some real medical training. No slag against medics, in fact, i have been also saying that Canada needs to provide a tatical Casevac capability, however lets let me do my job, there's no room for more kit ( or people) in either helicopter. There will be quite a backlash against bringing medevac medics with us on missions, too many cooks as it were.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Not to start a pissing match between the 2 trades, but comparitively speaking, who owns the higher skillset medically speaking?  Is it comparing apples to oranges?

I read this article/thread when it was posted and kinda laughed at the comment about the SAR Tech medical trg being "emergency first aid", as I thought for SURE it was head and shoulders above that. 

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I'll expand alittle on my question.  I overheard someone talking to the SAR Tech WO on my SERE course last November, asking the "so what medical stuff can SAR Techs do" kind of stuff, and IIRC the question came up about starting IVs.  I am sure the WO said he could do that, was qualified/legally able to.  I don't think the same goes for Med Techs.

That is what I meant by higher skillset.  Not to slag either trade either, I have respect for the folks in both of them.  Just curious about skillsets strictly on the medical side.

 

[HItorMiss]

I can't talk about the skillset of a SAR Tech though I know they do the same PCP course as QL3 medics out of the JIBC.

EITS:

Ref: IV's Medics can and do start them legaly as when they are finished their QL3 they are qualified Paramedics. Heck I let mine practice on me whenever she desires.

 

[ModlrMike]

Not to start a pissing match between the 2 trades, but comparitively speaking, who owns the higher skillset medically speaking?  Is it comparing apples to oranges?

I read this article/thread when it was posted and kinda laughed at the comment about the SAR Tech medical trg being "emergency first aid", as I thought for SURE it was head and shoulders above that.

Apples and oranges indeed. Two similar, but different occupations.

 

[kj_gully]

Our job necessitates certain skills that are more emphasized during the PCP portion of our 5a course, as I'm sure the PCP course offered med techs places emphasis on certain skills. So I think that while the qualification is the same, the training may differ slightly. After our 5a training we have a 6a course that goes into the Team Lead portion of medicine, providing us with the skills and knowledge to work independant (with protocol guidance). We have a pretty good pharmacy, not as modern as we would like, but good. Our environment requires us to provide certain care that may not be routine for a medic, though I suspect that now that medics are deploying and fighting with Infantry again, the skillset has "tightened up". I am no clinician, and often medics that come to my trade have  better differential diagnosis skills with medical conditions than I do. However, we do provide a high level of care to our patients, and due to the nature of our operating environment, have skills to enable us to provide care in remote environment for extended (24 hours +) periods of time. The biggest beef that will come from my trade in relation to this article is the inference that somehow a medic will be able to enhance the care provided to patients domestically. I have done a lot of medevacs (medical care to medical care) have had doctors, nurses, EMT and medics, both civilian and Military come for continuity of care, and have seldom had any use for them. When stuff goes downhill, the SAR Tech, who knows his way around the machine, and is a prehospital care practioner does the work. I guess, when it comes down to it, my skillset here in Canada is probably very close to the skillset of a Medic overseas. He has done extensive workup training, and has been given tools and skills needed to preserve and save life. I remain "on tour" for years, and have patient contacts that require high level competency fairly regularly, so am confident and capable of rendering vital interventions appropriately. This is getting wordy, so I'll cut it off there. I'll leave this as summary; no offence, medics, I know you know your shit, and if I get blown up on the side of a road, there is nobody I'd be happier to see. But I don't welcome hoisting back into a helicopter and handing a victim of disaster to you to take care of, I can do that just fine, thank you very much, and I'd rather have more fuel than carry the extra weight.

 

[DELTADOG13]

I'm pretty sure this topic can be summed up easily.

I think what the Air Force and Medic world is looking at is adding to the Tactical side of the Air Evacuation chain. It is not meant to take over the SAR role in Domestic SAR or evacuation. As Canada does not have a Combat SAR role, we are lacking this ability overseas.
The US have both these roles overseas. It is meant to add more ability to evacuate our own casualties not to take over an already established SAR mission.

It happened when I was in Afghanistan and we were looking at evacuating some of our casualties when we were hit by an IED and had overwatch with 2 Griffins. It was a timely decision that was not taken lightly but we would have to put our ground medics on the helo during the evac or wait for dedicated US casevac to arrive.

I believe the Air Force and Medical branches are finally realizing a role that we have been lacking. Now if we can convince them to get in the Combat SAR role too.