ADF Health September 2000 - Volume 1 Number 3From the EditorA year of momentous events
DURING 2000, DEFENCE HEALTH PERSONNEL have deployed overseas to several locations. These deployments have included health support to Operation Bel Isi II with the continuing Peace Monitoring Group on Bougainville, to the International Force East Timor (INTERFET) during Operation Warden and then, after 23 February, to its successor, the United Nations Temporary Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) during Operation Tanager. Defence Health personnel have deployed to the Darwin area during Operation Spitfire immediately before INTERFET, and in support of the Services assisted evacuations from the Solomon Islands. Defence Health has provided training and advice to the Olympic Games organisations and support to a variety of other UN peacekeeping operations around the world. The tri-national United Nations Military Hospital in Dili, supporting UNTAET, provides health care (up to UN Level 3) to a projected population of 12 500 UN military and civilian personnel. The hospital staff are commanded by an RAAF medical officer and consist of Australian, Egyptian and Singaporean personnel. It is the first time the ADF has deployed a major medical contingent with Air Force as the lead Service. It is also the first time that the UN has deployed a multinational Level 3 facility anywhere in the world. IN AUGUST, the Surgeon General ADF and the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Margaret Kilmartin, jointly signed an agreement to establish the Military Medicine Chapter of the College. This ratifies an important development: it recognises both the significance of the discipline of military medicine and the specific skills required by military medical practitioners. We will watch with great interest the maturation of this new College chapter. HER MAJESTY Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother became a centenarian on 4 August. The Queen Mother has been the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps since 1948. We all offer our loyal congratulations, continuing affection and wishes for good health to Her Majesty. ANOTHER CENTENARY was celebrated in Orange, NSW, on 22 July, when the Surgeon General, Major General John Pearn unveiled a memorial to the military surgeon Dr Neville Howse VC. On 24 July 1900, Lieutenant Howse won the Victoria Cross by rescuing the injured Trumpeter Shorter under direct rifle fire. His Victoria Cross was the first to have been conferred on a member of an Australian military unit, and he remains the only Australian medical officer to have been awarded the Victoria Cross. DURING SEPTEMBER, THE citizens of Sydney will host the XXVII Modern Olympiad with the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Commodore Michael Flynn, who, as Director of the Counter Disaster and Olympic Planning Branch of NSWHEALTH, has been closely involved in health care planning for the Games describes some of the preparations in his article on page 129. Liaison with the ADF has been active throughout the long preparation for this magnificent event. We send the athletes of all nations our best wishes for them to achieve their acme. Air Commodore Bruce Short, RFD
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AT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the publication of ADF Health, I look back with some satisfaction on its development during the year. The Journal is now a fully peerreviewed publication. Reviews are obtained from both the Defence Health Service and the civilian scientific community. Articles have been contributed to ADF Health by authors from all ranks within the Defence Health Service as well as from non-service personnel.