Hualien Health Bureau Promotes 'Aid Hand 3.0' to Strengthen Community-Based Local Medical Response

(CNA, Hualien, May 17) To enhance medical response capabilities for natural disasters and sudden incidents, the Hualien County Health Bureau, in collaboration with the Taiwan Disaster Medical Assistance Team Development Association, the Hualien County Medical Association, and various other medical professional guilds, held the 'GCTF Connect Aid Hand 3.0' disaster medical care training today to root these skills in the local community. Hualien has long faced risks from natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. The importance of frontline community medical and care systems was particularly highlighted after the overflow incident at the Mataian River barrier lake in Guangfu. Supported by the 'Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF),' the 'GCTF Connect Aid Hand 3.0' training was held today at the Hualien County Health Bureau. Chu Chia-hsiang, Director-General of the Hualien County Health Bureau, stated that the training attracted enthusiastic participation from grassroots medical institutions, pharmacies, health centers, and schools across Hualien, with a total of 99 medical personnel attending, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and respiratory therapists. The Guangfu disaster has made medical personnel in Hualien, who already valued disaster medical development, even more proactive in learning professional skills. Chu pointed out that in the initial stages of a disaster, challenges such as transportation disruptions and strained medical capacity may arise. Grassroots medical personnel and community care units are often the crucial first responders. Therefore, extending medical response capabilities to the community frontline is a key factor in building local resilience. Hualien's disaster medical training adopts a 'start from the hospital, root in the community' approach. Following the training of personnel in various hospitals and health centers, this 'GCTF Connect Aid Hand 3.0' training brings disaster medical care practices to grassroots medical units. The training content covers practical disaster medicine and mass casualty incident response mechanisms, including advanced first aid courses on emergency trauma treatment, tourniquet use, cricothyrotomy, needle decompression, as well as patient warming and assessment. Through group practical sessions and simulation drills, it enhances the response capabilities and inter-unit cooperation of grassroots medical personnel in the face of sudden disasters. The course also included logistical topics in disaster medicine such as organizational structure and triage, introduction to modular first aid stations, concepts of out-of-hospital blood transfusion, and principles of instrument sterilization and water purification. This helps grassroots medical and community units build a more complete concept of disaster care and enhances their ability to support existing response systems during a disaster. Chu stated that 'local medical care first' is not just a medical policy but an important foundation for safeguarding local safety. During the Guangfu disaster, when transportation was cut off and medical institutions were damaged, the first to engage in rescue were the local health center and medical teams who had received regular disaster medical training. The experience from the Guangfu flood response shows that initiating local medical response can effectively shorten rescue time. Leveraging familiarity with the local environment and residents' health conditions significantly improves the efficiency of disaster medicine and the public's sense of security. Only by truly implementing disaster medical training in the community and rooting it at the grassroots level can it be transformed into an immediate response force during a disaster, making disaster medicine truly community-based and close to the people. The Hualien County Health Bureau emphasized that disaster response relies not only on resource investment but also on institutionalization and teamwork. In the future, it will continue to deepen community disaster medical education and grassroots preparedness, linking local medical, public health, and community care forces to jointly build a safer, more resilient, and healthy Hualien, safeguarding the lives and health of its citizens. (Editor: Chang Ya-ching) 1150517