Why Flying Doctors in West Africa Mining Industry are vital against the combat of Infectious Diseases

With the past spates of Ebola outbreaks in West Africa behind us, we are starting to see more medical health facilities and major incident emergency services apparent in the region. The WHO (World Health Organization) has declared Nigeria ‘Sanction free of the Ebola virus’ putting an end to international, humanitarian tragedy in the region.  However, vigilance remains high as Nigeria looks to re-build its mining economic base.

At the time of the Ebola outbreaks, servicing the mines in the region had proved to be troublesome and difficult. Ebola was largely confined to remote rural areas.  With road and air being the most feasible options. Flying Doctors, air medical evacuation providing on route care, has been proven as the most divisible option.

Incorporating the services of Air Ambulances has proven more complex. Skills such as life support, incident management and public safety competences to remote working locations are a vital part of any business crisis infrastructure.

Whilst the Ebola Crisis saw expatriates and skilled staff deserting corporations, forcing businesses to put expansion on hold, we are seeing ways in which to instil confidence and turn the situation around by embracing capital investment in health and safety, major incident planning and business crisis infrastructures. Any business who adopts these methods will certainly instil confidence back into the market with the return of workers allowing for mining for growth.

A few major specific recommendations for risks of how infectious disease can be tackled and the provisions which should be in place ready for emergency transport

1. Ensuring emergency communication lines for assistance are in place with back up options 
2. Provision of emergency transport (By land, water and air)
3. Regular consistent first-aid and life support training for in-house staff
4. Preparation of organized plans and simulations scenarios
5. Journey plans should be meticulously implemented to help reduce risk of road traffic accidents
6. Major incident plans should be written up and revised

A year on, some of the world’s most profitable business owners are placing more emphasis on adopting crisis emergency services, supporting local healthcare organisations and major international mining communities - signalling they are recognising the problems of insufficient capacity and the drastic need to change.

In Nigeria, the mining industry faces major challenges which directly and indirectly has a knock on effect to the quality of healthcare and emergency medicine response. The prevalence of infectious diseases is higher in Africa than other continents. Therefore specific strategies and precautions must be developed by companies to avoid workers being exposed to infectious diseases.

We’re starting to see employers adopting specific strategies, taking precautions, recognising and addressing the need for additional assistance and onsite medical equipment for unique circumstances, changing first aid needs.  For more information on how the Flying Doctors can assist you with major incident planning and training in Nigeria and Africa wide. Please contact sales@flyingdoctorsnigeria.com

Important considerations for advanced first aiders in a Nigerian Oil & Gas locations

Work differs greatly in Africa from other industrial regions such as the US or UK. Like the US & UK, oil and gas employers are regularly monitored and audited by safety bodies, to ensure the highest safety standards and practices are being met. However, In Africa employees face unique risks which every health & safety team should take into great consideration.

In Nigeria, the oil and gas industry faces major challenges, which play a huge part in major incident emergency response situations,

1. Poor healthcare infrastructure including emergency response
2. Corruption
3. The climate
4. Increased burden of infectious disease

Those four difficulties have direct and indirect effects on the quality of healthcare and emergency medicine response, especially in the remote, off shore areas.

Regardless of the size of the company and the work performed, adequate first-aid supplies and advanced trained first aiders should always be available 24/7. It is critical for our medical personnel to be able to act quickly and effectively in diagnosing a problem, supporting and stabilising the casualty and moving on to ascertain further assistance.

Taking a proactive, preventive and effective approach to cultivate a safer working environment ultimately saves lives. 

Training staff as advanced first aiders is imperative, giving your staff the ability to manage incidents, and ensuring safety of bystander’s and the casualty. At the same time allowing our medical crew to accommodate the speedy handling of an emergency arising from work associated incidents, on-route to the proper medical facility.

In a medical emergency every second counts.

The table below shows the main differences between the basic and advanced first aiders skills.

Skills	First-aider (basic skills)	Advanced first-aider
AED	Working knowledge	Competent usage
Choking	Competent	Competent
Burns Management	Basic skills	Advanced management of burns with knowledge of patients transfer.
Airway	Basic skills using mouth to mouth, and pocket mask.	Advanced skills with basic knowledge of airway openings.
Breathing	Working knowledge	Basic assessment skills
Circulation	Very limited	Having an experience of basic assessment.
Managing Haemorrhage	Only direct and indirect pressure.	Competence with the most convenient method of haemorrhage control.

Oil and Gas corporates are addressing the real need for adopting specific additional strategies when working in Nigeria, Such as the need for additional training, kits, medical equipment and supplies.

Our range of services for corporate organisations includes;

1. Repatriation to our partner hospitals in USA, UK, South Africa, Turkey, Egypt, India etc.
2. Emergency transfer by road or air to best source of local help.
3. Medical escorts on commercial airline flights.
4. Malaria prophylaxis advice
5. Vaccination
6. Procurement of medical equipment and supplies for remote site support.
7. Health and safety advice/ training.
8. First aid training.
9. Risk assessment.

For more information on how the Flying Doctors can assist you with advanced medical planning, medical evacuation and oil and gas first aid training in Nigeria and Africa wide.

Please contact sales@flyingdoctorsnigeria.com

Highlights of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference 2013

 1. Nigeria's Oil And Gas Strategy In The Next Five Years- A New Dawn To Boost Investment And Production?

• What are the next steps to Nigeria's oil and gas production?
• How are the global economic crisis and uncertain oil prices impacting Nigeria?
• How can Nigeria continue to attract investment amidst competition from other sub-Saharan African countries?

 2: Leading Lights Session

• What is required to make Nigeria's oil and gas industry globally competitive?
• How can countries place themselves in equal footing with other competitive resource holders?
• Best practices in defining policy options

3: Setting Nigeria's Oil and Gas  Industry In A Domestic And Global Context- What Are The Challenges And Opportunities Ahead?

• How are the global economic crisis and uncertain oil prices impacting Nigeria?
• How can Nigeria continue to attract investment amidst competition from other Sub-Saharan African countries?
• Creating an enabling environment for investment to boost oil and gas production

4: Revamping Nigeria's Oil and Gas Industry Through Increased Investment- From Upstream To Downstream

• Boosting deep water production- what is needed to enhance investment in sector?
• How can more players enter into deep water operations?
• What is the best business model for the refining sector and how can private equity be obtained?

5: Panel Discussion; Gas, Power and Renewable- What Has Been Achieved And Where Are We Heading?

• What has been achieved so far in terms of investment in the gas and power industries?
• What is the financing strategy for domestic gas infrastructure
• What progress has been made in electricity sector reform?

6: Leader's Panel; The Nigerian Oil And Gas Industry Moving Forward- What Are The Next Steps?

• How will joint ventures evolve in Nigeria going forward?
• Where will the drive for new exploration projects be?
• Development plans in deep water projects
• How will the PIB impact future E&P activities in  Nigeria

7: Focus On Independents; How Are Indigenous Companies Transforming The Nigerian Oil And Gas Industry?

• Creating an enabling environment to encourage Nigerian Companies to enter and expand operations 
• What are the fiscal and regulatory incentives that indigenous companies require?
• How can indigenous companies access the technical know-how and financing to further their operations?
• The divestment process from IOCs to indigenous companies: success and pitfalls?

8: Oil And Gas Stakeholders Forum; Community participation- What Has Been Achieved In Creating Win-Win Solutions For All Stakeholders In The Niger-Delta Region?

• How are HSE initiatives impacting security in the Niger Delta Region

9: Focus on Petroleum Industry Bill- Is this A New Dawn For Nigeria?

CHAIR: Adeoye Adefulu, Partner, Odunjunrin & Adefulu

• How will the PIB be implemented?
• To what extent will the new fiscal terms encourage investments in deep water operations and increase production?
• What is the impact of the PIB on indigenous Oil and Gas companies and what incentives exist?
• What is the impact of the PIB on natural gas development projects?

10: Financing For Energy projects Along The Value Chain. What Are The Structures In Place?

• What domestic and international markets are readily available for financial institutions in Nigeria to fund oil and gas projects?
• What risks do bankers face in funding E&P project and what kinds of structures are used?
• What is the appropriate framework for financing gas to power project?
• What is the most effective ways for indigenous oil service companies to access funding in a typical Nigerian financial market? case study: The shell kobo fund.
• How can downstream sector in Nigeria be financed sustain-ably?

11: Nigeria Content implementation So Far; How Do Different Stakeholders Interpret The Nigerian Content Act?

• What has been achieved in Nigeria content implementation so far and what else needs to be done?
• How have oil and gas divestment of assets boosted Nigerian content?
• Lessons learnt from around the globe, how can Nigeria continue to succeed in Nigeria content implementation?

12: What Are The Legal And Operational Challenges And Opportunities Of Nigerian Content?

• How can indigenous companies access adequate funding?
• Implementing training to fill the skills gap
• What support do suppliers need to meet operation requirements?
• Improving the effectiveness of local contractors through technology transfer
• Lowering costs through procurement and contracting strategies

13: What Are The Challenges And Opportunities Of Complying With Nigeria Content Requirement?

• How do Nigeria content regulations provide a source of business opportunities?
• How can indigenous companies access the technical know-how and training to further their operations?
• What needs to be done to reach Nigeria content targets?

TECHNICAL SESSION

14: Human Capacity Development And HSE

• Developing human capacity in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry
• Remote health care in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry (Dr Ola Orekunrin, Medical Director of Flying Doctors Nigeria)
• Nigeria: A systematic approach to managing fire safety on offshore installations

15: Gas To Power And Alternative Sources

• Flare gas to power initiative in the Niger- Delta
• Electricity provision to the host community MPNS sustain-ably and reliability 
• The development of industrial estates powered by gas in non-producing oil and gas regions
• Review on Methane Hydrate; A cost efficient potential source of future Energy
• Gas process for power generation
• The Nigeria midstream challenge caterpillar dynamic gas blending reducing and fuel cost 

16: Deep Water Engineering And Maintenance

• Addressing challenge for unconventional gas condition using advanced integrated technology
• Design for reliability in subsea production control systems
• Oil and Gas asset life extensive
• Asset integrity corrosion survey system
• Flow assurance news innovating ways to manage your MEG reclamation and regeneration with pure mega

17: Flare Reduction And Gas Gathering Technology

• Critical overview of gas flaring reduction in Nigeria Oil sector and its challenges
• Safe and increased protection without extra flare load: has integrity pressure protection system
• FPSO system with integrated GTL solution for associated gas
• Associated gas haring reduction
• A cost efferent solution for flare gas recovery
• Innovating rotary slide drilling system: an indigenous rotary steer able system alternative.

Air Ambulances - Their Importance and Value

Have you ever heard of air ambulances? Well if not then, air ambulances are specialized aircraft where the interior has been configured as a mobile Intensive Care Unit, ICU. They are used when a more traditional means of medical transportation cannot be used to rescue a patient and transport him or her to the nearest hospital and are a new concept that is gaining a lot of importance and popularity.

Helicopters are the main form of this medical transportation, but now private Corporate Jets are also gaining a lot of popularity due to their flexibility, range, reliability, and flight comfort. This type of aircraft is significantly more flexible then other types of aircraft because of their ability to be configured with the latest intensive care unit equipment, these jets are well suited for transporting patients long distances, quickly, comfortable, and safely.

Fixed wing jet aircraft are best for transporting people who have had severe accidents or have fallen ill where they cannot be transported by conventional means either because of time or distance.For instance,An example would be during winter sports athletic competitions where there is a high probably for the competitors to face serious accidents during playing winter games.

Air ambulances are very well equipped with medical items and the quantities of medicine and specialized equipment are tailored for each specific mission. By reducing the amount of excess equipment the airplane carrying we are able to reduce the amount of weight that the aircraft has to carry. An example of this mission tailoring would be not bringing a kidney dialysis machine on a mission to transport someone who has a broken leg. All carry some standard equipment such as ventilators, CPR's, ECG's, monitoring units etc. All this equipment allows the crews to monitor and stabilize the patients till they reach to the hospital.

You do not need to worry about whether or not the crews onboard the aircraft are efficient and are very well trained. The crew knows how to handle a patient to stabilize their condition before they reach to a safe location. The crews are a team who know how to work together as a team and have the medical and flying experience. They have the experience and the training to stop profuse blood flood, any crushes and falling, cardio attack any many more.

The services that are offered by air ambulances are available 24 hours a day and seven days a week which means that whenever you call them you will be able to report to them regarding where you are stuck or have fallen ill. These services are provided for people who are within the local country or somewhere outside which means internationally as well. Once the advocate or the patient is able to contact the medical transportation provider, the flight coordinator will decide how urgent the situation is and what kind of medical treatment is needed for the patient to stabilize them before he or she is admitted to the hospital.

Air ambulances are also called Aero-medical evacuation, Medevac, Airevac, and Medical Flight. There are many different agencies that own or one can say operate aircraft configured as ambulances. Two of the main agencies are the government and those owned by private enterprise agencies.

Written by John Bohn, a professional pilot with Mercy Jets.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com