Newsroom interviews... Truc Nguyen about life inside the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team and overseas deployment
The New Zealand Medical Assistance Team (NZMAT) that gets deployed overseas to support local health services in a major emergency – has been internationally commended for being able to provide health care which goes well beyond the minimum requirements.
The World Health Organisation said NZMAT has demonstrated its capability to deliver quality assured health services, some of which were beyond the required standards for team of that category.
Newsroom spoke to Intensive Care Pharmacist Truc Nguyen about what this meant, the role of pharmacy inside NZMAT, and the work of NZMAT overseas.
Q. In the May 2024 edition of Hauora, it states that the NZMAT is being internationally commended for being able to provide health care which goes well beyond the minimum requirements. Does this include its pharmacy work?
A. Specific comment was made in relation to the pharmacy work and its development of additional resources - “Its pocket-sized printed booklet for registration of dangerous/controlled drugs is commended. This enables NZMAT members to cross check and ensure non-breach of quantity and temperature”.
Q. Can you share who inside WHO gave the commendation? And when? And what they said?
A. The World Health Organization Emergency Team Secretariat reclassification team lead by Dr Roy Cosico October 31st, 2023, undertook the reclassification visit. Reclassification final report was received February 2024.
“NZMAT has demonstrated its capability to deliver quality assured health services, some of
which are beyond the minimum technical standards for an EMT Type 1 Fixed and Mobile.
The support of NZMAT, within and beyond the Western Pacific region, is acknowledged and appreciated.”
Q. What does an average day for the NZMAT team look like?
A. There is no average day, when deployed the team could be providing a range of activities from being embedded in an existing healthcare facility, or in the local community. The team needs to be flexible and able to use their skill sets in a range of settings.
Our previous responses have been to sudden onset disasters such as post cyclones and flooding, to communicable disease outbreaks and providing surge support to impacted healthcare facilities.
Q. What is the process for deploying NZMAT? Where does NZMAT go?
A. Depending on the type of support required by the impacted country we select a team based on the skillsets required, this could be a surgical or public health focused team. The only pre-requisite is that everyone needs to have successfully completed the NZMAT team member course and ensure they are up to date on their mandatory vaccinations.
NZMAT could deploy domestically under certain circumstances or predominately in the Southwest Pacific. Previously we have deployed to the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Niue, and the Cook Islands.
We also sometimes provide NZMAT team members to supplement an Australian Medical Assistance Team if requested and have previously done joint deployments with AusMAT to Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
Q. How are pharmacists involved?
A. The pharmacist role is a critical part of our Type 1 fixed outpatient facility, prescribing and dispensing required medication, they can also provide surge support into a country’s existing hospital or medical centre if requested.
Q. Which town are you from?
A. I am originally from Whangarei but currently live in Auckland.
Q. What is your pharmacy discipline?
A. I work in the hospital setting as a Critical Care Pharmacist.
Q. Where did you train?
A. I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Otago and Master of Pharmacy from Monash University. Alongside that I obtained a postgraduate certificate to become a pharmacist prescriber at the University of Auckland.
Q. Why did you want to get involved with NZMAT?
A. I have always wanted to do some type of voluntary work but wasn’t sure what I could do or how to get involved. I didn’t know NZMAT even existed until one day I was sitting in a tearoom having lunch and saw a flyer pinned on the wall. It was an article mentioning a New Zealand medical team deploying to an island treating the local population post-disaster. From that point on I was sold and wanted to join as I knew I could help with my unique skill set as a pharmacist.
Q. What are your top three highlights of working with NZMAT?
- I absolutely loved the initial NZMAT team member course. It is totally different to any seminar or conference I’ve ever been to before. It goes through a range of topics such as the philosophy of emergency medical teams, navigation, safety & security, logistics, media, cultural etiquette, convoy driving, and we do a 24-hour simulation of a deployment.
- Its great meeting the numerous like-minded NZMAT members that have a vast array of experience within their profession. All of them practice at the top of their scopes and are from all over the country. We all have a part to play within the team, and the times we do get together I enjoy sharing the pharmacy side of things.
- I was fortunate enough to deploy to the Cook Islands in 2021 supporting the vaccination rollout. It was great working alongside our NZMAT team and the experience we had with local health providers gave us more insight into their pharmacy processes that would benefit in future deployments. At the time we were short of NZMAT trained pharmacists and I did a double deployment.