Last civilian medical team returns from Tsunami affected region, Australia

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 14 Feb 2005 - 8:00 PDT

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Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Horvath, has welcomed back to Australia the last of the community based medical teams sent to Tsunami affected regions of Asia.

Today (Sunday) the final civilian medical team, comprising doctors and other health care professionals, mainly from Victoria, arrived back in Australia.

This team, the seventh specially selected group of health care professionals, included surgical and nursing staff, paramedics, public health and infectious disease doctors, a microbiologist, and a logistician.

"From the beginning of this disaster in the Indian Ocean, Australian Government Agencies have been working together to provide an all-of-government humanitarian effort and the Department of Health and Ageing mounted a major health response," Professor Horvath said.

"Working with all States and Territories through the Australian Health Disaster Management Policy Committee (AHDMPC), which comprises all of Australia's Chief Health Officers, and with logistical support by Emergency Management Australia, we were able to rapidly supply seven medical teams to Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand to meet the specific health and medical needs identified by each country.

"The Australian Government has now decided that as the Commonwealth's tsunami response has moved from the initial life-sustaining and humanitarian phase to reconstruction activities, no further State and Territory based medical teams will be required for now" Professor Horvath said.

Professor Horvath thanked the many health care professionals who volunteered to be deployed in the Tsunami affected areas.

"We were overwhelmed with offers of assistance and names of people who would still like to help in the reconstruction phase have been passed to Australian Volunteers International.

"The rapid response by all health authorities in Australia to the Indian Ocean tsunami proved the value of Commonwealth and State and Territory cooperation and preparedness in disaster planning and management and should give confidence to the Australian public that Australia is well prepared to handle any emergency health situation either domestically or overseas," Professor Horvath said.

Media contact: Kay McNiece, 0412 132 585
Australian Dept of Health Press Release

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