Accidental pirates

Not to be confused with Talk Like a Pirate Day, PIRATE Day (Pre-hospital Initial Response And Treatment Education Day) is an opportunity for medical specialists to apply their skills in an emergency outside the hospital or clinical environment.

“PIRATE Day is a course designed to make in-hospital doctors more useful if they are the first on the scene of a medical emergency or trauma,” says Kerry Holmes, an anaesthetist at Waitematā Hospital and a doctor with the Auckland Helicopter Emergency Medical Service since 2019.

“A doctor at the scene should be able to do a lot in an emergency,” says Holmes, “but it takes special training and equipment to maximise usefulness.”

“Our aim is to teach lots of doctors from all different specialties so that there are loads of doctors in the community that can be giving high level care in the first 15 minutes after an accident takes place.”

On a squally Saturday last July, 14 specialists gathered at Ardmore Aerodrome in South Auckland, home of the Auckland Helicopter Rescue Trust. The group, which included geriatricians, orthopaedic surgeons, gynaecologists, and infectious disease specialists, started with some hands-on instruction before a series of very realistic simulations to put new skills into practice.

From a car-crash to a drowning to a serious fall, participants had their practical and social skills tested. With paramedic students cast as patients and onlookers, some excellent sound effects and some judicious use of make-up, cuts of meat and a garden sprayer, the scenarios were enough to convince more than a few members of the public who wandered by it was a ‘real’ emergency.

In between, there was an opportunity to take a ride in the Westpac rescue helicopter.

As well as training and an opportunity to apply their skills, each participant was provided a well-stocked bespoke trauma pack to keep in their car to maximise their ability to help in the future.

PIRATE Day also benefits back to emergency medical services, with all proceeds from course fees going into a fund for purchasing educational equipment for ongoing training, and funding paramedics to attend national and international courses.

Delayed by Covid-19, 2022 is the second time that PIRATE Day has been run. But Kerry is keen to make sure it keeps going and growing, with even more specialties represented and greater spread across the country.

“We can be very siloed in our sub-specialty worlds, so having a course where people from a wide range of specialities can interact together is an added bonus.”

Andrew Chick | Senior Communications Advisor