It looked like a scene out of the movie M*A*S*H in a field at the Brampton Powerade Centre, where a Canadian Red Cross field hospital has been stationed this past week.
White tents donning Red Cross emblems were scattered across the field: one a surgical unit, another for triage, and another as a medical ward.
Fortunately, the hospital wasn’t there for Red Cross to respond to a major disaster in the community. Instead, a group of delegates were taking part in extensive training to be prepared to respond to the next big disaster. As part of the training, several Red Cross delegates including several doctors and nurses, stayed on-site for several long days, sleeping in tents and enduring the chilly late November GTA temps. All of this was to help them experience what it would be like to live and work at a field hospital in a disaster zone.
Because of support from the Government of Canada, the Canadian Red Cross will soon be able to deploy such a field hospital from Canada for the first time. Red Cross field hospitals were deployed from Europe and Asia following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti and the recent super flood in Pakistan.
These field hospitals can provide basic health care, vaccinations, surgery and mobile medical services as needed. They also include a psychosocial support unit and community-based health unit, both vital to helping heals psychological wounds and prevents the spread of disease.
An official announcement about the field hospital was made today by Canadian Red Cross Secretary General Conrad Sauvé and the Honourable Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation.