Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT)

Introduction

A DMAT is a group of medical professionals and paraprofessionals including physicians, nurses, allied health and paramedics, and non-medical members such as logisticians that deploy to the site of a disaster at short notice

The team is expected to be self sufficient for up to 3 days and must bring its own shelters, power, food, water, medical supplies and communications.

History

Following the Bali bombing in 2002 and the South East Asian tsunami in 2004, recommendations were made to develop civilian medical team capabilities within Australia to respond to incidents within the State, the Country or Overseas. The West Australian Department of Health, Disaster Preparedness and Management Unit (DMPU) received funding from Emergency Management Australia to research DMATs and develop a model for use in Western Australia initially and possible nationally.

The DMAT research paper can be found here.

Progress

To date DPMU has appointed a project officer, purchased self-sustainability equipment and are in the processing of developing equipment lists to be used during deployments.

A working party has been in operation since January 2006 and has assisted in the development of a modular structure which covers both Response Units (that will be self sustainable), Support Units (that will work in existing infrastructure such as hospitals) and a Support Section that includes logisticians and other expertise required to support the team i.e. health logisticians, biomedical engineers, pharmacists etc.

Future Development

Towards the end of the year, expressions of interest will be sought from appropriately trained and experienced staff to join the Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Each volunteer will be trained and prepared for possible deployments within the State of Western Australia, within the country or overseas.

For further information, please refer to the Contacts section.