Partnering with the Hong Kong College of Emergency Medicine, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJCDPRI) supported the development of leadership training for healthcare professionals.

The Fundamental Disaster Response Course is organized by the Disaster Medicine Sub-committee of the Hong Kong College of Emergency Medicine (HKCEM) and supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJCDPRI), aiming to cultivate leadership in disaster management. The course covered core skills and a competency checklist for disaster management, and will be delivered via lectures, discussions, demonstrations, experience sharing.

Since the course launched in 2015, it has become an annual training. The fourth course was delivered over 4 full days spanning 4 months from March to June 2018. It was attended by 21 participants, ranging from doctors and nurses from Emergency Department of hospitals, inspectors of the Hong Kong Police Force and paramedics from the Hong Kong Fire Services Department.

Fifteen speakers from different backgrounds with expertise in different areas of providing healthcare services in overseas deployment or in non-hospital environments were invited to speak about their experiences in overseas deployment, specific issues during deployment such as pre-deployment preparation, dealing with infectious diseases, water and sanitation in field hospital, field equipment and site planning for field hospitals, challenges that may be faced in overseas deployment, and the Hospital Authority Emergency Response Operations Outside Hong Kong.

The sessions were delivered in a mixture of lectures…

…and interactive discussions.

The class for Fundamental Disaster Response Course 2018, along with the course organisers, Dr M.K. Ho (Bottom row, Right most) and Dr C.B. Lo (Bottom row, Left most).