Behind the scenes of every medical evacuation from a remote or hostile area is a crack team of coordinators who often work with emergency pilots, ambulance services and hospitals. Sulafa Mohamed Ahmed Elbashir, an operations specialist with RMSI Medical Solutions in Dubai, discusses a day of rapid response.
7am
I get up.
8.15am
Usually I get into the office. I will take the handover from my colleague from the previous shift. If we have any active missions, or follow-ups, we'll follow-up with the clients or with the medical crew. We have clinics in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're going through the contact details for the medical team over there. Sometimes I do computer work, like making sure all the electronic copies are attached to certain files of soldiers.
Morning
Sometimes an active mission [involves] an aircraft . [It maybe] took off half an hour before I come into work and arrives when I come [in]; our aircraft is based in Dubai International Airport. If the aircraft reaches Dubai, and we are transferring or evacuating a patient from any of the remote areas, we have to make sure he gets easy entrance through customs and all the clearances. The ambulance should be waiting for him. There should be no delay in transferring the patient to the hospital.
We don't see the patients. I used to work as an emergency nurse for five or six years, and to not see a patient is strange.
Lunch
We have in our building three or four restaurants. We can always have delivery. I'm more into sandwiches - something quick, and just throw it in the microwave.
Afternoon
Sometimes I get a request for a medical evacuation. First of all, I would have to receive the request with defined cities and the origin. Sometimes people just give you a country and say "I want to take someone from Baghdad to the US." But the US has different flying hours [to get to different cities], and we tell them, "you have to give us a city where you actually want to take him so we can give you a price." We can activate the mission with three to four hours to take off.
6.15pm
My colleague will be arriving. I give the handover. If I finish the arrangements for all the aircraft, my evening colleagues will be there to close the case. It is easier to do administration jobs when you're in the night shift, and it's easier to prepare for a flight in the night to take off at 6am or 7am.
After 7pm
I get home. [Dinner is] going to be delivery. Maybe a pizza. [After dinner] I like walking, anywhere. I read a lot. I try usually to be in my bed around 10.30.
