Twelve years and counting.
That’s how long the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the Philippine College of Surgeons (PCS) have been teaming up to respond to disasters and mass casualty incidents.
They renewed their partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) at the PRC headquarters in Mandaluyong.
PRC Chairman and CEO Dick Gordon and PRC Secretary-General Dr. Gwen Pang signed the MOA with PCS President Dr. Vivencio Jose Villaflor III and PCS Treasurer Dr. Joselito Mendoza.
In the agreement, PRC and PCS vowed to optimize each other’s assets and medical services, including training surgeons in Emergency Medical Services for mass casualty incidents (MCIs) such as large-scale disasters, especially earthquakes and typhoons.
In the event that hospitals experience a shortage of beds for patients, part of PRC’s standard response is to build Emergency Field Hospitals (EFH). PCS’s member-doctors will then provide emergency medical duties to PRC’s EFH.
PRC’s equipment and facilities as key factors in the partnership.
Villaflor cited PRC’s equipment and facilities as key factors in the partnership. These assets include PRC’s Volunteer Emergency Response Vehicles (VERV), Operations Center, and satellite internet.
Gordon thanked PCS for its continued collaboration and pointed out that PRC’s successful operations lie in its two million volunteers nationwide.
“The PRC,” said Gordon, “is considered one of the best Red Cross organizations in the world.”
“All of us are trained to act and think immediately when help is needed.”
“We are focused, fast, friendly, flexible, and forward-looking. All of us are trained to act and think immediately when help is needed,” he added.
The PRC-PCS partnership dates back to 2012.
Since then, the two organizations have collaborated on several mitigation training sessions, including mass casualty incident simulation exercises, pandemic preparedness activities, and the PRC’s annual Traslacion Operation.
