by MELISSA WICKHAM

THE TEN FINALISTS in the Pic-O-De-Crop competition were not the only ones being "judged" at the National Stadium on Friday night.

Officials from the Cricket World Cup (CWC) were watching closely as Barbados tested its mass-casualty plan for Barbados' Cricket World Cup 2007.

It was the first of about three such test runs to be overseen by the Medical & Disaster Management Advisory team, established two years ago and chaired by Dr Adrian Lorde.

It is the same team of volunteers, give or take a few, who won Barbados the chance to host the final match here, and comprises a team of doctors, Central Emergency Relief Organisation (CERO) officials and physiotherapists.

Friday's run-through, which included ambulances, paramedics, doctors on call at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), and a medical station set up at the National Stadium, will be reviewed and a report sent to CWC headquarters in Jamaica.

Another test run will be conducted in December at the World Golf Cup
at Sandy Lane, and the team is hoping to have a third one at the refurbished Kensington Oval prior to the Cricket World Cup. However, this depends on the hand-over time of the oval.

In an interview with the SUNDAY SUN, Lorde shared some of the plans the team has drafted for next year's big event.

"Basically, we want to provide excellent medical services for Cricket World Cup and to provide a safe and healthy environment for all participants and spectators involved in the World Cup. This is while maintaining and improving the health services of Barbados," he said.

While the team will be responsible for looking after the cricketers, their families, cricket officials and the "very important VIPs" – who will include prime ministers from other countries – the doctor said the health of Barbadians would not be compromised in the process.

"We don't want to put additional pressure on the QEH, polyclinics and ambulance services, so our plans were put in place with this in mind," he explained.

"We will set up an advance medical facility at Kensington Oval. It will be located in the Goddards Complex. A temporary building will be erected by CWC. It will be a type of polyclinic complete with doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, administrative persons, and a portable X-ray unit. It will deal with any accidents or injuries that occur during the game at Kensington."

A medical post will be set up in each stand to provide care for spectators. Medical personnel manning these posts will be in contact with the main medical centre and a central command centre (also at Kensington) which will have key personnel from the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Barbados Fire Service and CERO.

Some of the other plans include:

l the purchase of two ambulances. During the games, they will be located at Kensington Oval – one for the cricketers and VIPs and the other for the main medical station set up there. However, private ambulances will be used as well;

l an emergency ambulance route from Kensington to the QEH has been worked out and the team is working on a Memorandum of Understanding with Bayview Hospital;

l two golf ambulances. Golf carts will be used to transport persons from the stands to the main medical station. These will be loaned by Sandy Lane; and

l the old Nightengale Home which formerly housed medical students and nurses will be used as an alternate emergency facility. It will be used for housing people in the event of mass casualties or as a quarantine area in case there are any communicable diseases; and, it will accommodate any overflow from the QEH.

Lorde said the hospital would be providing $25 million in equipment for the upgrade of the hospital. It will go towards purchasing new X-ray equipment, ultrasound and CAT-scan machines.

The operating theatres and some of the wards will be refurbished; the theatres in the Lions' Eye Care Centre will become fully operational and the Accident & Emergency Department will be expanded.

He said that after World Cup, all the supplies and equipment would be put back into the health system.

In addition, provisions will be made to make sure there would not be a shortage of drugs.

"You would have some new and emerging diseases. Some diseases we are not familiar with in Barbados. People will be coming from Africa, where conditions like malaria are rampant, so we are also training and retraining medical personnel in these areas and we will be providing adequate drugs for treatment of those conditions," the doctor said.

In addition to Kensington, the team has developed a plan for the Three Ws oval at the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill Campus and other warm-up venues.