Sudan: Mass Casualty Training at the Salam Centre

A few days ago, thirty doctors and nurses from the most remote and problematic areas in Sudan arrived in Khartoum to spend five days with us and take part in training dedicated to the subject of mass casualties.

What is a mass casualty? It is a huge influx of patients who arrive in A&E during a short timespan. Our doctors and nurses are more than prepared for this type of event and have developed procedures that allow staff to manage mass casualties quickly and in the best way possible. Luca and Michela, members of the medical division at EMERGENCY, have taken our developed and tested model to Africa for the first time. This approach is based on years of experience in Afghanistan, where similar situations are unfortunately very frequent.

It was great to see how everyone participated with genuine interest in the course’s lessons and exercises; hosted in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and Sudan’s Ministry of Health.

There’s still a long way to go, but, the hope is that this marks the beginning of a path to better standards of hospital response across the country, to guarantee all Sudanese citizens access to quality healthcare – even in emergencies.

Strengthening the expertise and professionalism of local staff has always been a fundamental part of what we do. At the end of the day, our objective is to hand over all our projects to local medical personnel and become ‘unnecessary’ ourselves.