Just two days after unpacking their equipment in Papua New Guinea, the Role 2 (R2) health capability supporting Operation Render Safe 26 – 20th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron Group – had already received its first surgical patients. 

Behind the doors of a series of converted hotel rooms in East New Britain, the hum of medical equipment competed with the drone of an overworked air conditioner, as personnel from the 3rd Health Battalion performed surgical procedures on two deployed members with marine foreign body injuries.  

For Major Ashley St John, an anaesthetist from 3rd Health Battalion, the surgery was an early demonstration of how rapidly deployable health capabilities support operations in austere environments. 

“This Role 2 health capability sits between a very small forward surgical capability and its traditional form, being the Role 2 Basic that is almost twice the size,” Major St John said. 

“It gives us a deployable medical facility with an operating theatre, and the ability to stabilise and hold patients before evacuation.” 

While the capability is designed to respond to serious trauma associated with explosive ordnance disposal operations, it also supports the treatment of everyday injuries and medical issues that occur during deployments. 

“We can provide force preservation healthcare. Things like foreign body removals, infections and other injuries that happen during a deployment,” Major St John said. 

'It gives us a deployable medical facility with an operating theatre, and the ability to stabilise and hold patients before evacuation.'

During the recent procedures, Major St John provided regional anaesthesia, known as a ‘nerve block’, numbing the patient's extremity, while surgeons removed the foreign bodies from their patients. 

The surgeries were conducted inside a hotel room which, only days earlier, had contained little more than beds and bedside tables before being transformed into a functioning surgical environment using equipment and consumables transported from Australia. 

“It’s the first time we’ve operated this capability in hard-standing accommodation like this,” Major St John said. 

“We took the standard Role 2 Basic set-up, reduced it to suit the likely injury profile and mapped the layout before deployment. That preparation allowed us to set up very quickly once we arrived.” 

Despite the unconventional layout, the team set up and developed a full set of standard operating procedures specific to the operation within days. 

These included how to manage cold chain (maintaining the temperature-controlled supply of medical products) during blackouts, mass-casualty planning and the activation of the emergency donor panel. 

“The challenge is that we’re working across multiple hotel rooms instead of a purpose-built field set-up, so things are more spread out across many rooms, yet also very confined within that space,” Major St John said. 

“It’s definitely a compact and more austere environment.” 

'It’s a different environment, different challenges and a chance to work with people who all share the same mindset.'

Throughout the deployment, the teamwork across Defence health capabilities was evident. 

“We all know each other through previous exercises and civilian employment, which is really important because we work closely together in a confined environment,” Major St John said. 

“You need to understand how each person works, when someone needs support and when people need rest. Good teamwork is critical.” 

Outside his reserve service, Major St John works full time as a consultant anaesthetist at Monash Health in Melbourne, but said deployments such as Operation Render Safe offered something unique. 

“Army is something I really enjoy. It fills my cup,” he said. 

“It’s a different environment, different challenges and a chance to work with people who all share the same mindset.” 

Operation Render Safe involves personnel from the ADF, Papua New Guinea Defence Force, France, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States to dispose of explosive remnants of war in the Gazelle, Kokopo and Rabaul Districts of East New Britain.