Media Room: Defence Alert

Defence
ALERT

What: Ceremony to mark the hand-over of the ANZAC Surgical Ward to AusAID and to farewell the New Zealand medical contingent.

Who: Commanding Officer of the ANZAC Hospital, Lieutenant Colonel Georgeina Whelan and the Banda Aceh Public Hospital Director, Dr Rus Munandar.

Where: Banda Aceh Public Hospital – media are requested to meet at the Poly Clinic for escort to the ceremony.

When: 5:00 pm (Banda Aceh time) Sunday, 20 February 2005 (9:00 pm AEST)

LTCOL Georgeina Whelan will be available for interview.

Stills images from the hand over will be available at http://www.defence.gov.au/optsunamiassist/default.htm from 9:00am (AEST) on 21 Feb 05.

File vision will be available from 12:00pm (AEST) on 21 Feb 05.

The ANZAC Field Hospital is the Australian Defence Force medical contribution to Operation Sumatra Assist and is located a the Banda Aceh Public Hospital (Rumah Sakit Umum Dr Zainoel Abidin).

The facility originally comprised two wards – the infectious Diseases Ward and a Surgical Ward – with a staff of around 120 Australian and 30 New Zealand personnel. The Indonesian Hospital Director resumed full control of the Infectious Diseases Ward on 15 February 2005.

The majority of Australian troops are from Holsworthy-based 1^st Health Support Battalion. The New Zealand troops are from the 2^nd Health Support Battalion (New Zealand Defence Force).

Over the past weeks, the Hospital’s Commanding Officer implemented a skill-share program that integrated Indonesian staff on the ANZAC Hospital wards. Staff from Emergency Management Australia, under arrangements by AusAID, also worked on the Surgical Ward.

Defence Media Liaison (02) 6265 3343 or 0408 498 664

Issued by Ministerial Support and Public Affairs, Department of Defence,
Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999
Fax: 02 6265 6946
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