Mobile medical team trains at Twente Safety Campus

13 november 2023

Twente Safety Campus

In a major incident involving more than 10 casualties, a mobile medical team (MMT) with a trauma helicopter is deployed. If this cannot be present quickly enough or if additional medical assistance is needed, a so-called ground-based MMT is deployed. The MMT team comes from the Medical Spectrum Twente in Enschede. This autumn, around 60 part and observers of the ground-based MMT were trained together with MST's company emergency response team at the Twente Safety Campus.

Collision between car and coach

How does such an exercise work? That was recently described by Acute Care Euregio, the agency that has a role in the evaluation of MMT exercises. The scenario of the exercise was as follows: after a collision between a car and a coach, the driver of the car (played by a trauma actor) is trapped behind the wheel. She plays that she has a concussion, broken collarbone, rib fractures and a bleeding pneumothorax. A realistic situation that requires the mobile medical team to work well with the fire brigade to get the driver out of the wreckage as quickly and safely as possible.

Smooth cooperation between MMT and the FAFS+ team

After MST's FAFS+ team assesses the vehicle for fire and explosion hazards, they discuss with the MMT how the person may be removed from the car wreck and what time they have to do so. Together, they decide that the fire brigade will break windows in a controlled way and cut open a door. During this work, the MMT can then already connect the driver to a monitor and start treatment.

Realistic situation

The exercise goes smoothly, the emergency workers manage to complement each other well and eventually the driver can be placed on a stretcher via the rear door for further treatment. ‘Calm’, ‘communication’ and ‘nice effort’ are the keywords of the participants during the evaluation afterwards. One participant says she found the exercise very realistic. ‘You are really in it,’ she says. "It helps enormously that there is a trauma actress. It wouldn't be the same with a puppet".

Full focus on deployment

The location of the Twente Safety Campus on the green and enclosed grounds of Technology Base makes it quite possible to run realistic exercises with trauma actors without an audience. This allows participants to fully focus on their deployment.

The TSC offers plenty of opportunities to run exercises with different disciplines such as the fire brigade and the MMT. The skill level within the TSC to instructors, both medical and firefighter-related, is at a high level. This perfectly matches MST's needs. Besides the MMT, the BHV fire brigade team also practises regularly to keep their professional skills up to standard.

Source: Twente Safety Campus