Students evacuated the hospital

Depending on injuries and health, the sick were led by soldiers under hand, carried out by wheelchairs or carried on stretchers up stairs. In this case, adequate cover was needed, so the removal of 1 patient was attended by 4 patients plus medical personnel. Everyone evacuated got blankets to cover up.

“This is simply a very valuable experience for us, it is surely useful if actual evacuation occurs,” says 1 of the patients who took part in the exercises. He adds that so far, the subjects have repeatedly practiced evacuation from the battlefield, but here they have dealt not with pretenders, but with real patients. “We had to pay attention to them, communicate, calm, and cooperate with the infirmary staff,” the soldier emphasized.

All patients active in the evacuation were evacuated from the building to the designated escape point. After about 40 minutes, the exercise was completed and patients were discharged or taken to the rooms. These were the first exercises conducted together with AWL's subjects.

As Prof. Wojciech Witkiewicz, the manager of the hospital, said, the situation of the real danger of his facility survived on January 28, 2012, erstwhile the telephone was received with information about the bomb being planted on 1 of the branches. As infirmary staff revealed a suspicious package, it was decided to evacuate immediately in the interests of patient and staff safety.

– The situation was dramatic not only due to the highly low, falling to -15 degrees of temperature, but besides the ongoing treatments and operations, including the birth with an imperial cut," the manager recalls. Fortunately, thanks to effective cooperation between medical services and facilities, an effective evacuation to another hospitals was carried out. “This event has made us aware of the request for systematic exercises of various variants, from fire to bomb threats,” says Prof. Witkiewicz.

In turn, Dr. Rafał Małecki, Deputy manager of Medical Affairs, summarizes his participation in the AWL training. “We are very grateful that we can conduct specified exercises with the military, due to the fact that frequently in unexpected situations there is simply a request to evacuate a large number of patients in a short time”, he explains.

He adds that the military's assistance was invaluable for both organizational reasons and for a large number of subjects who participated in the action. – During the training we have besides noticed any organizational shortcomings, we will effort to repair them and strengthen our cooperation with the military so that we can act effectively and rapidly – explains Dr. Małecki.

For the actions of the people who helped evacuate, he was liable Col at remainder Anatol Tichoniuk, lecturer of the AWL Emergency Action Department. As the officer emphasizes, the AWL is open to continuing specified exercises and to act if needed. “In the event of a real bomb alarm, the main activity of the site is the fire department and police. On the another hand, due to the neighbourhood of the infirmary and the AWL, investigating specified a variant of evacuation, in which they aid the military, seems apparent – said Colonel Tichoniuk.

“This is besides a valuable lesson for us, soldiers have contact with the sick, they will learn about the procedures and the infirmary itself, which is invaluable if the doctor asks for aid in the event of actual danger,” concludes the lecturer.
Land Army Academy and Provincial Specialist infirmary last year signed a cooperation agreement, which includes, among others, joint training. Additionally, on the basis of an agreement concluded this year with the Lower Silesian Provincial Office in Wroclaw, since October university lecturers have been conducting civilian protection classes for employees of a complex and non-complex administration.