Twenty Armed Forces of Malta personnel are currently following a five-week intensive Combat Medic course, whose training is being conducted by a four-man instructor team from the Italian Red Cross.

This combat medicine course is being led by Marco Fillipi from the Special Rescue Office of the Italian Red Cross (IRC) headquarters in Rome, a public entity which plays key roles in both civil and military spheres. Since its inception, it has been supporting the Italian armed forces in all its national or overseas theatres of operations.

Given the experience gained on the field by Italian trainers in Tactical Medicine for Special Forces, particularly in basic and advanced life support procedures, especially in hostile or remote environments, the Special Rescue Office has developed an exchange programme with the Maltese Red Cross Society, which has been underway since the 1990s. Such training covered areas like water rescue, K-9 rescue and, Search and Rescue (SAR).

With the valid techno-tactical logistic support of the Malta-based Italian Military Mission and the assistance of the Italian Embassy, the AFM’s Combat Medicine course was formulated to spread over two training phases.

The first training phase covered an introduction to emergency first aid through basic life support, early defibrillation and basic trauma support as encountered on the battlefield. The tuition modules also covered field life-support during deployments under combat duress situations through realistic exercises. This hones various individual and teamwork skills, and how to work under austere conditions by improvising rescue equipment from common everyday materials, “bullet-proofing” the equipment, the medics and the casualties themselves, or stopping bleeding gunshot wounds. Students were then assessed through a near-real life scenario, offering multiple-choice opportunities of resolution.

The AFM course participants have all successfully achieved the international standards of “Combat life Savers”.

Phase two sees the selection of five of the best AFM course participants to further their training in mission planning, advanced life support skills, hospital shift and medical standing orders planning, and even emergency childbirth. Under the AFM’s Principal Medical Officer’s direction, they will also then learn how to administer lifesaving drugs on the battlefield. It is envisaged that a further Special Operations Combat Medic module may be added to the ongoing course format.

During yesterday’s portion of course training, the AFM students were visited by Commander AFM, Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, the Italian Military Mission Commanding Officer – Colonel Giovanni Ormetti, the Italian Embassy’s First Secretary, Giovanni Bellato and Commander Russano Alberto Rosso from the IRC’s HQ in Rome. They were able to view helicopter-approach safety drills, which concern medical and casualty evacuation operations, pre-flight preparation of the injured casualty, and basic in-flight assistance and onboard safety in the aircraft.