Page 14 - RADC 2015

MILITARY MATTERS
Getting there
On Saturday 15th March we headed to 4 Med Regt to collect our passports and have a nal document check. It was a nerve- racking feeling not knowing what to expect on the other side but we had a long journey ahead of us rst! We left Aldershot by coach and headed to Heathrow airport. Check
in was surprisingly fast, a quick bite to eat and it was time to board the plane. Arriving at Casa Blanca many hours later where we had a four-hour wait, Captain Dobie and
I entertained ourselves playing cards and watching a movie. Finally it was 00:20 and time to board our second plane, heading
to Freetown! It had already been a long 12 hours of travelling and waiting around and we were only half way. Arriving in Freetown, Sierra Leone around 04:50 on 16th March, the heat was overwhelming, and the smell was... different. I
don’t think there was
a person in sight that
wasn’t sweating! Before
entering the airport
we had to wash our
hands with chlorine and
have our temperatures
taken- this was the
beginning of it all! I remember feeling really conscious about touching people and
things that may have been likely to give
me anything. It was quite scary at rst, seeing all the staff at the airport in full PPE, yet we were there in civilian clothing with
no real protection at all. Filling out different paperwork and questionnaire’s to get through seemed endless. Finally though we collected our luggage, layered ourselves with mosquito repellent and headed out the door.
Although out of the airport it turned out we had another long journey to look forward to! By this point everyone was pretty tired and just wanted the get there. We had a
40 minute bus journey (on a school bus
that could seat 26 children) to the dock, squished up with our luggage, and then
a wait for the Marines to pick us up on a boat. The boat trip didn’t go too well for poor Captain Dobie who suffered from travel sickness, I even found her asleep on top of a load of bergans – perfect excuse for a photo opportunity. It had been 24 hours since departing for Sierra Leone and we still had not reached Benguema for our arrival briefs! One more bus journey to go!
Dental kit. Note trip hazard identi ed and managed
Pte Bryan completes another self-portrait
Setting up
Arriving at ISAT we had a quick meet with the role 1 team then took the rest of the day to get ourselves settled, shower and rested before the work began.
We were very impressed with our allocated surgery which had been purpose built as a clinical area, nished only days before we arrived. The smell of paint in those rst few days however was rather intoxicating and it never did really leave. The aircon unit installed though was a life saver, I think we had
the coldest room in
Sierra Leone but as a
ginger it was de nitely
needed. More good
news was our electro-
med had all arrived,
with only the dust
cabinet not making
the journey intact,
and that MDSS were
on hand to do all the
testing.
We did get a bit of a surprise when we saw the boxes of consumables that had
to be sorted through and an even further shock when glancing at the module lists of what we were expecting!! There was a lot of work to be done and, with the earlier than expected closure of the treatment capability of Argus for those land based, less time than we expected to do it.
Unfortunately, as the kit did not arrive as complete module boxes instead coming
through as bits and pieces, there was a certain amount missing. Some of it, such as Kaf r-D, we could afford to open without, but surgery cleaning products, gloves, masks etc were a must. So we had a few days of begging, borrowing and stealing from Role 1 and Role 2 to get the surgery open for emergency treatments. Luckily
we did as on opening day in came wisdom tooth pain!
The surgery set up was pretty basic and without module boxes we had to improvise
with storage but it was clean and user friendly. Shockingly less than
4 days of being open we had an impromptu inspection from
an IPC Major!! Not something I expected on tour but with
only minor points for improvement, some of which were already in place just not seen by
the inspector (ie hand washing and sharps posters), I was happy.
I was pleasantly surprised with the effectiveness of the electro-med. Not the most powerful drill and scaler I have ever used but it worked and was quite reliable. There were very few instances of kit failure, especially once Pte Bryan realised that the unit (rather than the duty phone charger) needed to be plugged in to work – awkward moment with MDSS on that one.
12 RADC BULLETIN 2015
The boat trip didn’t go too well for poor Captain Dobie
I think we had the coldest room in Sierra Leone but as a ginger it was de nitely needed