Day 13: Thu 14 Sep - Seoul

We had to be at the departure point at 8am so it was another early breakfast and a leisurely stroll to meet the bus. For once, all the members were on time and we left a few minutes early. MEPS visited the Korean Armed Forces Medical Emergency Operation Centre (MEOC) in Seoul, where we were shown a short video introducing the Armed Forces Medical Command (AFMC) which commands the individual services (Army, Navy, Air Force) and controls 14 military hospitals.

We were then given a brief about the MEOC which is basically a 'one-stop-shop' for medical support for the Korean military. Medical support can be requested in a number of ways including via a smart phone app. They currently have six dedicated medical evacuation helicopters, with a further eight to come online in 2019/20. The helicopters have decreased the evacuation time from four hours to just over one hour, thereby increasing the chance of survival. The MEOC also provides a very comprehensive telemedicine service. The Centre has only one pharmacist who is a civilian, however they are working on increasing the workforce.

Our next stop was for a tour of the ER of the Emergency Medical Centre. It has two separate entrances; one for infectious/contagious patients who are transferred directly to the isolation ward, with the other entrance being for the patients with more usual illness or injury. It also has all the necessary staff, stores and equipment to operate and ER.

It was then back on the bus for the 1h30m drive to the ROK Air Force Museum where we spent an hour being escorted through and given explanations of the different exhibits, including the history of the ROK Air Force. One interesting exhibit was that of the unit plaques. As with most militaries, each unit is numbered, and the symbol on each of the unit plaques gives a clue as to which unit is what number, ie. the number is incorporated into the symbol somehow – very clever when you know what to look for.

Before moving to the Aerospace Medical Training Centre, we had a boxed lunch at one of the highway rest stops.  We had sandwiches that tasted a lot tastier than they looked, fruit and water.

The training centre provides aviation physiology training, ie. the effects of high altitude on the body.  They have seven pieces of high tech training equipment including for: G-tolerance, spacial disorientation, ejection seat, hypobaric and hyperbaric chambers, and night vision.  It is the only facility of this type in Korea and was established after the Air Force suffered 24 aircraft mishaps in 14 years.  They train over 2 300 personnel (both AF and Army) per year, including those of other nations, eg. Pakistan and UAE.

The medical centre has various functions including periodic medicals, treatment and training, with their mission being to deliver the most elite, realistic and prepared airman through the establishment and development of a hospital specialised for aircrew. Every two years, each aircrew member undergoes a comprehensive medical examination; this equates to 4 000 patients per year. There are 11 examination rooms, including: physical fitness, vision, dental, clinical psychology, and ECG and BP.

Unfortunately, photography was forbidden. There was an “official” photographer and we hope he sends us all of the photos he took. Back in the bus for the 1.5-hour trip back to Seoul. As this is the last day of the Congress, we said our goodbyes when we got off the bus and made our way back to the hotel.  Dinner was at a place right next door to the hotel. It advertised German beer, so we decided to have a go.  As soon as we sat down we saw a sign telling us it was happy hour until 7pm and a 500ml Kloud (Korean) beer was KRW1 000 (about USD1) as opposed to KRW5 000.  So, we (Steve, Ann, Ulf and I (Jane and Sylvain went to the Closing Dinner as they both scored free tickets at Euro150 ea!!)) ordered a beer each whilst we perused the menu.  We all ended up having “pizza” – not your ordinary pizza base though – it was more like a water cracker.  It tasted OK and we washed it down with another cheap beer. It was a relatively early night.

On the bus for MEPS visit day

Lunch at a servo
Was tastier than it looked







R.O.K. Air Force Museum



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 11: Tue 12 Sep - Seoul

A relatively early start after a phone call from Greg. Didn't really need to be awake at 6am after the after 11pm finish last night, but, better early than late! Was at breakfast just after 7am for an 8:30am departure to start our MEPS Board Meeting at 9am. The meeting went well and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. My favourite, not, Burger King was the first shop we came to and we only had 15 minutes to eat, so we had that. Wasn't toooo bad, and we were back upstairs waiting to start the lunch time session. Sylvain was co-Chair and we had one MEPS speaker - a US Navy pharmacist - Angie Klinski speak about telepharmacy in the US Navy. As their laws have just been changed to prevent a medicine from being dispensed without being checked by a pharmacist, the US Navy had to change the way they did business in order to comply. Lessons can be learned here. Presentations regarding the refugee crisis followed and then a series of presentations on counterfeit medicines and ...
Read more

Day 10: Mon 11 Sep - Seoul

Image
An early breakfast to be at the COEX for the First-timers meeting.  Steve and I were there on time and had difficulty finding our buddies.  FIP were trying a new First-timer program this year; each new person (a buddy) is teamed up with a mentor (a Buddy).  However, what they failed to do was buddy-up section mentors with section first-timers.  So, both Steve and I had people from other than MEPS and it was difficult as we did not know who they should talk to in the other sections.  When we volunteered to be the Buddy, we assumed we would be buddy’d with a MEPS first-timer; perhaps it makes too much sense to do it this way? Anyway, we had a lot more enquiries about MEPS this year than we did last year and only one of them was a buddy! We shall be providing our constructive feedback soon. After the meeting, I returned to the hotel to prepare information/communications for the Meet and Greet.  I planned on doing a lot of other stuff as well, however, was tied...
Read more

The Flag of South Korea

Image
The flag's background is white, a traditional colour in Korean culture. White was common in the daily attire of 19th-century Koreans, and it still appears in contemporary version of traditional Korean garments, such as the hanbok. the colour represents peace and purity. The circle in the middle is derived from the philosophy of yin-yang and represents balance in the universe. The red half represents positive cosmic forces, and the blur half represents the opposing negative cosmic forces. Together the trigrams represent movement and harmony as fundamental principles. Each trigram represents on of the four classical elements, as described below:
Read more