When a critically injured casualty is transferred between coalition partners, their urgent medical care cannot skip a beat.
RAAF and Royal Air Force clinicians trained together during Exercise Pitch Black to ensure patient care remains seamless, even as responsibility passes between allied medical teams.
In one scenario, Australian medical teams treated casualties following a simulated missile strike before transferring them to a combined Australian-British aeromedical evacuation team on board a Royal Air Force Voyager.
The Voyager, capable of air-to-air refuelling and strategic airlift, can also be configured for aeromedical evacuation.
Working in the converted medical bay, Australian and British clinicians monitored and treated four injured patients throughout the mission.
The teams then spent more than eight hours airborne, delivering continuous care in the confined and demanding aircraft environment, while replicating the prolonged evacuation distances common across the Indo-Pacific.
Principal Medical Instructor Wing Commander Alan Turner said the exercise was designed to prepare clinicians for injuries they rarely encounter.
“What we’re doing is bringing two teams together who have slight differences in the way they practice medicine,” Wing Commander Turner said.
‘This kind of training between the nations is really important because you never know where you’re going to work, who you’re going to work with, who’s going to be there, and even the aircraft that are going to be there.’
“Neither of those teams get to deal with bombs and burns and blast injuries on a day-to-day basis, so giving them realistic scenarios that allow them to hone their competence and confidence in those situations is really vital.”
Rather than remaining within national teams, Australian and British clinicians were integrated throughout the mission.
“The beauty of today is that we’ve been able to mix teams,” Wing Commander Turner said.
“We’ve thrown some really interesting scenarios at them that they probably weren’t expecting.
“Their ability to just take it in their stride, to work together as a team and overcome those challenges has been really rewarding to see.”
Royal Air Force Sergeant Victoria Williams, a British registered nurse, said the training built confidence and that nationality had become secondary to patient care by the end of the exercise.
“This kind of training between the nations is really important because you never know where you’re going to work, who you’re going to work with, who’s going to be there, and even the aircraft that are going to be there,” Sergeant Williams said.
“It didn’t matter what uniform everyone was in – everyone just went into medical mode.
“You never know when we’re going to end up on an Aussie plane, or Australians could end up on one of ours as well.”
Pitch Black strengthens the interoperability that underpins coalition operations and, for military clinicians, that means building the trust, confidence and shared understanding to deliver uninterrupted care, regardless of whose uniform they wear.
