By
PTE John Wellfare
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Equipment
purchased in the latest phase of the ongoing upgrade to
Defence’s health capability will significantly improve the
effectiveness of deployable health teams, such as those
that deployed to Bali in 2002 (shown above) and on Op Sumatra
Assist.
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$58
million has been approved for the next phase
in Defence’s health services upgrade program.
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The
equipment purchased will improve AME capability
and deployable medical facilities.
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THE
latest phase in a 15-year procurement plan has recently been approved
by Government and will provide a $58 million boost to the ADF’s
deployable health capability.
Phase 2B of JP2060, the project that has been directing Defence’s
medical upgrades since 1996, is expected to keep the ADF health
capability at the forefront of the world’s militaries, with planned
purchases including AME equipment, imaging systems, monitoring
instruments, forensic dentistry tools and logistics capabilities.
The director of health capability development, Group Captain Geoff
Robinson, said the equipment to be purchased under Phase 2B would
enhance deployable health capabilities and in some cases create
whole new ones.
“We’ll be able to have a deployable forensic dentistry suite,
for instance,” he said.
“Class eight or pharmacy supplies and blood – that will give us
the ability to transport blood around the world.
“Our AME equipment is a particularly important one. We’ll be able
to upgrade our equipment to allow us to carry the very critically
ill patients we saw coming out of Bali and out of the tsunami.
“There are certainly a whole range of items that we’ll look at
procuring. “Now, we haven’t done the procuring, we haven’t done
the tendering for that equipment yet.
“The DMO project office will look at various suppliers and various
types of capability and then request for tenders and so on.
“What we’ll be able to input to that is getting the best bang
for buck, basically, and getting the latest equipment to enhance
or upgrade what we already have.”
Equipment purchases needed to be backed up with good staff and
the right skills, GPCAPT Robinson said. “While the $58 million
doesn’t go toward training as such, we have to make sure we parallel
new equipment and the new capability with training,” he said.
“So
it’s also part of our job to make sure that training is always
complementary to the equipment as well.”
Director-General Defence Health Service Air Commodore Tony Austin
said ADF health specialists would be better equipped to support
military activities and provide disaster relief after Phase 2B
has been implemented.
“It will make a significant difference to our ability to rapidly
deploy health people in an austere environment,” he said.
“There’s no question it will enhance our medical capability. “While
the focus of our health service is always on providing a fit fighting
force, treating battle casualties and maximising the operational
capability, we have the skills and we have the equipment to be
able to operate in many other spaces, such as responding to man-made
disasters, natural disasters, peacekeeping and peacemaking operations.
“For the men and women of the ADF, when they deploy operationally,
the goal of the Defence Health Service is to give them a standard
of care commensurate with that which they’d get on civvy street.
We want to make sure that they’re not treated as second-class
citizens and that our people and our equipment is the best available.
“Our people did a fantastic job in Aceh, but this [equipment upgrade]
will make it so that they can do it even better.”
Medical equipment procured under the earlier Phase 2A of JP2060,
which includes medium-fidelity mannequins and a portable ultrasound
capability, is expected to enter service soon.
