Doctors and nurses from across Australia have been training in Darwin in readiness for an Ebola outbreak in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT) are likely to be the nation’s responders if Ebola emerges in a neighbouring country.
AUSMAT is run by the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre.
The centre’s executive director, Dr Nicholas Coatsworth, said the exercise involved 27 AUSMAT trained doctors and nurses learning how to configure a field facility for an Ebola epidemic.
“This is as authentic as we can make it in Australia, based on the experience of organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières,” he said.
But Dr Coatsworth stressed it was unlikely AUSMAT members would be needed in the region.
“The likelihood of Ebola in our region is low, the likelihood of Ebola in Australia is even lower.
“But the importance of regional preparedness is critical.”
The most important part of the training was learning how to get in and out of protective suits properly, Dr Coatsworth said.
“Doing that correctly and with a trained observer is the most critical part to actually avoiding getting the Ebola virus when you’re treating these patients who are in great need.
“What we’re replicating here is not what happens in Australian hospitals, this is what happens in a real life field situation where you have an Ebola epidemic.”
AUSMAT is prepared to deploy to the Asia-Pacific but has not been asked by the Federal Government to head to West Africa.
Instead the Abbott Government has given $20 million to a private health company to set up a clinic in Sierra Leone.
Dr Coatsworth said the training would be useful to any AUSMAT members who wanted to help with that response.
“This training will prepare them and familiarise them sufficiently to go over with organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross,” he said.
The Centre will run at least three more courses until 100 people are trained in treating Ebola.
“We’re going to run courses until the Ebola epidemic is under control,” Dr Coatsworth said.
Nurse overwhelmed by ‘humanness’ of Ebola training
One trauma nurse who participated in the training, Rebekah Ogilvie, said the training would help her and her colleagues make informed decisions about helping with the Ebola epidemic.
“It’s never about whether or not we’re ready to head off overseas straight away, it’s around allowing clinicians who are thinking about deploying overseas to think about what it actually means and what you physically and psychologically have to go through,” she said.
Ms Ogilvie said the “humaness of things” was one of the hardest aspects of the training.
“In my day to day practise I touch people all the time, I support people, that’s the role that I take.
“The fact that you have to have this personal protection around you, and to try to work out ways in which you can engage with someone and you can show them that you’re caring for them without actually touching.”
Ms Ogilvie said she would strongly consider heading to West Africa to treat Ebola if given the chance.
“It’s part of my job, I see, to support our fellow humans.”
The experienced trauma nurse lives in the ACT where she said a month ago there was 30 centimetres of snow fall.
The training took place in Darwin’s humid 33 degrees Celsius heat.
“It’s pretty tough going, but the point is that if we’re going we’re not deploying tomorrow, it’s all about acclimatising yourself and this is just the process,” she said.
“It allows you to go if I am thinking about doing this I have to look after myself to be able to acclimatise and get myself there for the safety of myself but also for my team mates.”