US medics commend Ghanaian counterparts
A team from the United States (US) Army has paid a visit to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra to interact with US Army medics working under its Medical Readiness Training Exercise (MEDREX) programme.
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The visit also allowed the team to interact with Ghanaian medics at the hospital and to enquire about their work and how they were getting along with their counterparts from the US.
Led by the Commander of the US Army Southeastern Europe Task Force - Africa, Major General Todd Wasmund, and accompanied by the hospital’s administration which was led by Commander James Aggrey-Orleans, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, the team was taken around sections of the hospital, including the maternity theatre, lying-in ward, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the Trauma and Surgical Emergency Unit, which were the units the US Army medics were working in.
During the interaction, the medics described the Ghanaian medical team at the hospital as resourceful and adaptive, explaining that they were impressed with how, though under-resourced, they were able to handle most medical cases of patients by improvising some medical equipment that were not readily available for use.
MEDREX
MEDREX is a medical readiness exercise which brings together medical providers from the Ghana Army and the US Army to share best practices and care for patients, as well as build close relationships with each other.
It is a combined effort between the Ghana Armed Forces and partner forces spending time in medical facilities to conduct surgeries and other medical services while sharing best practices for the treatment of ailments.
It is part of the African Lion Military Exercise, which is US Africa Command’s largest annual joint combined exercise demonstrating the shared commitment to regional stability in North and West Africa and being hosted across Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia.
Impression
Briefing the media after the rounds, Major General Wasmund said he was impressed with what the hospital had been able to do with what it had.
“I’m absolutely impressed with what I’ve seen today - a 500-bed teaching hospital making the most of the resources available, giving confidence to patients, caring for them and helping them to heal and doing that with selflessness is really refreshing to see,” he remarked.
He said this year’s MEDREX hoped to continue to learn best practices and to exchange best ideas, strengthen relationships and continue to build on that for the future.
Mutual relationship
For his part, Commander Aggrey-Orleans described the collaboration with the US Army medics as a mutually beneficial one, where they learn how to function in an austere environment while their Ghanaian counterparts learn some advanced practices from them.
This way, he explained, when the need to work together emerges, there would be a seamless transition from working as individual nations to working together as a unified body.
