2020-11-22 – San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Today’s update is courtesy of Team Leader Brian Wilson: “CMAT – Canadian Medical Assistance Teams and Humanity First Canada setup for another day of running our EMT Type 1 Mobile clinic just outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in response to Hurricanes Eta & Iota, and the resulting flooding that has killed dozens of people and displaced thousands.
“In a time of a world-wide pandemic, this has compounded the disaster in this country. Our teams of volunteers have taken vacation from their jobs, and left their families, to respond to this dire humanitarian emergency, acknowledging the risks, and even accepting that when we get home we will have to quarantine for another two weeks.
“I am humbled to work alongside such a great group of clinicians and logisticians who share a common desire to serve humanity, save lives, and make the world a little bit of a better place. This is all possible because of generous donations, we are completely donor funded and volunteer staffed.”
Patients assessed today included an elder in a remote mountainous village, who was unable to attend clinic due to mobility issues. CMAT and Humanity First Clinicians conducted a home visit to assess the patient.
2020-11-18 – La Entrada, Honduras: A video tribute to the hard work of logisticians that make foreign aid delivery possible. They arrange everything from entry into a country, to packing our thousands of pounds of luggage into units that can be checked in with airlines, to securing drivers and vehicles, to feeding the staff.
Traffic and Pedestrians are stranded on a major highway which was washed out by Hurricane Iota.
2020-11-17 – La Entrada, Honduras (With special thanks to the HF/CMAT Team Leader Brian Wilson for this update):
“This morning we woke up to find out that all internet into our region was down. This means that we had no wifi, and no cellular data, which is important because these days a LOT of coordination is done using WhatsApp which requires data. We went back to “old school” methods, like SMS messages and calling people… (sheesh, it’s like we were back in the dark ages!)
We requested that CICOM provide us with a police escort to get us the last 2.5 hours into San Pedro Sula. Unfortunately they told us the bridges were not passable. We then sent a team to investigate the situation first-hand, and found that 15 minutes out of town, the only highway was completely flooded. We explored options of trying to find another way, by going further south, but have been told that highway is also impassable.
In the meantime, using SMS to relay messages through another NGO, we confirmed that CICOM knew where we were, and they have now requested that we setup to provide medical clinics in the immediate region until access into San Pedro Sula can be logistically sorted out. We have been contacted by a local medical officer, who stated they would be in contact tomorrow to coordinate our efforts. Below is a short video showing the flooded road as viewed by our Deputy Team Lead, Hassan Naeem. Tomorrow is a new day, and the team looks forward to getting to work while we wait for instructions on how best to reach the hardest hit regions.”
November 16, 2020 – Toronto, ON: The CMAT and Humanity First Canada Collaborative Emergency Medical Team gathered in Toronto this evening to prepare for tomorrow’s team deployment to Honduras. Good luck team!! #EMTeams #EMTAmericas
November 15, 2020 – San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Less than two weeks after powerful Hurricane Eta killed more than 200 people across Central America, authorities on Saturday warned that tropical storm Iota is likely to wallop coastal areas of Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday as a major hurricane.
In collaboration with our partner Humanity First Canada, and with guidance from the Pan American Health Organization, CMAT will be mobilizing its medical team to the affected region in Northern Honduras in the next 24 to 48 hours, in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Iota.
The Collaborative CMAT/ Humanity First medical team was assembled over the past few days, and together with medical equipment and supplies, will deploy as two EMTs Type 1 Mobile. Team members due to depart Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in the coming days.
Your support of it critical in this time of need. Please help CMAT and Humanity First provide medical assistance for the Honduran people at this devastating time, when they are most at risk. Donate now, so that together, we can save lives.
In the coming weeks, at the WHO’s request, PCPM may be shifting their response to the Republic of Armenia, and they have asked CMAT to survey our volunteers for interest in possible collaboration and co-deployment. This deployment is not yet confirmed, but is being proposed for the end of July and August, 2020.
There is a particular need for expertise in Anaesthesia and Critical/ Intensive Care, particularly for Physicians and Registered Nurses, as well as Respiratory Therapists. The teams would be supporting the existing health care system in the capital city of Yerevan and possibly beyond. Details are still being worked out.
If you are interested in potentially deploying to Armenia, please ensure your CMAT profile is up to date with all the required documentation (i.e. upload a copy of your passport, your professional license, your vaccination record etc.) Please also send your expression interest (including your speciality and professional experience) by email to: [email protected]
To login – use the email address at which this email was received, and you can reset your password by clicking “Forgot password”. You can refer new volunteers to register under the same link, and then creating a new profile.
IMPORTANT: the inbound 14-day self-quarantine restriction which has been mandated by the Canadian government may remain in place upon your return. Please take this into consideration when looking at your schedule. Outbound travel would be arranged on commercial airlines to Poland for staging, then connect to chartered military aircraft from Poland to Armenia.
TORONTO – March 31, 2020 – Canadian Medical Assistance Teams is responding to the needs of our colleagues in health who are on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Heeding their plea, CMAT is doing our part in this ever-changing situation by emptying our warehouse of all our stockpiled Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and donating it to healthcare providers on the front lines.
On March 31, CMAT will deliver protective masks and examination gloves, as well as isolation gowns and suits to Michael Garron Hospital, where one of Toronto’s largest COVID-19 assessment centres is located.
Additional supplies will be donated to Toronto Overdose Prevention Society and Inner City Health Associates, both organizations which assist vulnerable people experiencing homelessness and addictions in Toronto, who are at very high risk in this pandemic.
CMAT maintains an emergency stockpile of medical equipment and supplies, which is called upon when deploying medical teams to disasters and emergencies around the world. CMAT is proud to now be able to support our colleagues in the COVID-19 response efforts here at home by donating our stockpile of PPE.
Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT) is a Canadian disaster relief organization made of medical professionals and non-medical volunteers who selflessly give their time and resources to assist and provide relief aid to the victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world. Established in January 2005, CMAT has earned a reputation as an important partner agency of the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization.
CMAT teams have responded to numerous global disasters including earthquakes in Pakistan, Haiti and Nepal; tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan; and typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. CMAT has accumulated a database of over one thousand skilled health professionals from across Canada.
Thanks for being patient while CMAT worked hard behind-the-scenes over the past year. This email is to provide you with some updates on what we have been doing, as well as to provide you with a sneak peek into what’s in store for our future.
Given the progress we’ve made the in the last year, our relationship with our CMAT members remains extremely important to us, and we want to make sure you remain engaged in our growing organization, and be a major part of its ongoing successes!
In this email:
Update on World Health Organization/ Pan American Health Organization Collaboration on Emergency Medical Teams designation
New Membership Database
CALL FOR MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS – Samoa Measles Outbreak
Save the Date! CMAT 2020 Annual General Meeting of Members and Elections
World Health Organization/ Pan American Health Organization – Emergency Medical Teams Initiative
The purpose of the EMT initiative is to improve the timeliness and quality of health services provided by national and international Emergency Medical Teams and enhance the capacity of national health systems in leading the activation and coordination of this response in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, outbreak and/or other emergency. A directory of all classified EMTs is held by the Secretariat, to help speed up the mobilization and coordination of quality assured teams in the event of an emergency.
EMTs are an important part of the global health workforce and have a specific role. Any doctor, nurse or paramedic team coming from another country to practice healthcare in an emergency needs to come as a member of a team. That team must have training, quality, equipment and supplies so it can respond with success rather impose a burden on the national system. EMTs must strive for self-sufficiency, meet the minimum standards for EMTs, and a possess the quality of care that is appropriate for the context.
Since 2015, CMAT has been involved with the WHO EMT Secretariat, participating in regular regional and global meetings (most recently in Bangkok, Thailand in June 2019) and meeting with our EMT mentors to help guide our process toward official designation. As we ensure that we meet all the minimum requirements set out by the WHO, we have had to amend some of our practices, develop new policies and re-develop many of our standard operating procedures. We have reviewed and inventoried our equipment and supplies, and are establishing critical partnerships with other like minded organizations to help streamline our operations.
We are in the process of creating new online orientation training, as well as recurrent training for our volunteers, which will likely involve a simulation exercise. Also, once finalized, we will be releasing our updated CMAT Field Operations Guide (‘FOG’), as a policy/procedure handbook for our volunteers and members.
All of these changes and developments do come at a price, however, and we continue to appeal for donations through CanadaHelps to help support the purchase of critical equipment and supplies. Click the WHO or PAHO logo above for more information about the WHO EMT Initiative.
NEW! Updated CMAT Membership Database
Since CMAT’s inception in 2005, our strength has always been our volunteers, who selflessly give their time and effort to deliver high quality health care to the world’s most vulnerable survivors of disaster. One of the most challenging aspects of our operations is maintaining our roster of over 1000 health professionals and keeping it up to date. With the implementation of the minimum standards for credentials set out by WHO, it was clear our volunteer database needed more fortification.
CMAT is proud to partner with Better Impact – a Canadian software company based in Hamilton, Ontario, who has developed a robust, encrypted, volunteer database system. This ensures that any and all data that our volunteers upload to the database will be secure, and housed on servers in Canada. It is critically important to CMAT that our volunteer information, data and documents are securely protected at all time, and under Canadian Law.
So what does that mean for you, the volunteer? Well, we will need you to login to your profile, and update the information in it. We will also be requiring you to upload several documents, in order to become active on our roster. This is a requirement from the WHO.
How do I login to update my profile?
Go to volunteer.canadianmedicalteams.org . On the upper right side of the page, you will see “Log in to your account”. Click on this link.
On the next page, click on “Forgot your username or password?”
Select “I forgot my password” and enter your username, which is the full email address where you just received this newsletter.
Click the checkbox to prove you are not a robot, then click send email.
You will receive a email in your inbox with a link to reset your password. Click this link, then you will be asked to click “reset password” a second time.
You will receive a second email with a temporary password. Copy and paste this password to login to your profile – you will be immediately prompted to change your password to one you create.
What information do I need to provide to CMAT?
As per the WHO guidelines, CMAT needs to collect information about our volunteers. If you are selected to deploy, some of this information would then need to be submitted to the EMT coordination cell as well as the Ministry of Health of the host country we wish to work in. The new database also has the capability of tracking expiry dates, and notifying our members when certificates or documents are up for renewal.
Once you are logged in, click on “My Profile”on the top right corner, and make sure all the pages are completed with your contact information, professional documentation and other information. THe documents we need to ensure remain up to date include (but are not limited to)
Professional Registration or License (if you are a health professional)
Police Background Check document
Resume/ CV
CPR, ACLS and/or PALS (as needed)
Copy of the photo page of your passport
Immunization Records
Other documents as required from time to time and on request.
The database is a work in progress, and as we become more familiar with it we will tweak it to make it work well for all us. If you have any questions about the database, please email [email protected]
NOTE: any profiles which are not logged into by January 31, 2020 will be archived.
To remove your profile from our database, please email [email protected]
Call for Medical Volunteers – Samoa Measles Outbreak
The pacific island nation of Samoa has been making headlines over the past month due to a significant measles outbreak. At last count, 4,995 measles cases had been recorded, and 72 people, mostly young children, have died. The actual number of cases and deaths is likely to exceed this, because not everyone with measles will present for medical treatment, and not all deaths occur in hospital. More than one in five Samoan babies aged six to 11 months have contracted measles during this outbreak, and more than one in 150 babies in this age group have died.At the request of the World Health Organization and in collaboration with our colleagues at NYCMedics, a response to the measles outbreak in Samoa is being mobilized. As needs evolve additional clinical positions have become available. NYCMedics and CMAT will provide surge support in two facilities, TTM Hospital in Apia and MT II Hospital on Savai’i Island. They will also provide support to district hospitals in case management, isolation and infection prevention control. The full mission will be approximately one month from 17 December through 15 January – there will be two team rotations to cover this time period. ROTATION 1: 12/17 – 12/31 (deadline has passed) ROTATION 2: 12/28 – 1/15 NYCMedics has asked CMAT to help recruit for the following volunteer positions:
MD board certified in Pediatrics or Adolescent Medicine
MD board certified Emergency Medicine
MD board certified in OB/GYN
Emergency Medicine NP or RN with formal training in emergency nurse (peds course preferred)
NP/RN – obstetrics nursing cert preferred
Pediatric NP/RN
Clinicians should have 5 years experience and hold current credentials. If you are interested in representing CMAT and deploying with NYCMedics, please send an email to [email protected]. (Note: at this time, paramedics are not recognized in Samoa.)
WHAT: CMAT 2020 Annual General Meeting of Members
WHEN: Saturday March 7, 2020 at 19:00 Eastern
WHERE: Toronto, Ontario, and live-streamed online and by teleconference.
WHO: All members are welcome!
A call for nominations for the CMAT Board will be sent out in February.
September 10, 2017: Since the onset of the Hurricane Irma disaster response, CMAT has been in direct communication with our partners at the World Health Organization (WHO)/ Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and other UN Partners. Since 2016, CMAT has been working diligently toward official verification as a WHO/PAHO designated Emergency Medical Team. As a result, the policies and processes under which CMAT functions in disaster response have been updated to reflect the minimum standards as outlined by the WHO/PAHO.
As of 19:00 ET September 10, PAHO has asked CMAT to prepare to deploy to the Caribbean as a “Type 1” Emergency Medical Team.
At this time, CMAT Deployment coordinators are calling for CMAT volunteers to staff rotations of medical teams, the first of which would be standing by for departure within the next 2-3 days, with deployment rotations of up to 3 weeks.
To submit your expression of interest to CMAT, the following steps are mandatory. In order to comply with the World Health Organization’s Minimum Standards for Emergency Medical Teams, failing to provide hard copies of the following items to CMAT will result in forfeiture of your eligibility to deploy.
In order to be placed on the list for potential deployment, please prepare your package of printed hard copies of the following documents to be kept on hand, and also submit electronic copies to CMAT:
Three (3) printed PASSPORT STYLE, one copy scanned and emailed to CMAT;
Proof of PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATION with your provincial regulatory body or association (College of Physicians, College of Nurses etc.), a copy scanned and emailed to CMAT;
A printed and signed copy of your CMAT LIABILITY WAIVER (click link), a copy scanned and emailed to CMAT;
Please ensure that your applicable PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY PROTECTION or INSURANCE is up to date, carry a copy with you, a copy scanned and emailed to CMAT;
Two (2) photocopies of the photo page of your CANADIAN PASSPORT WITH A MINIMUM OF 6 MONTHS REMAINING VALIDITY, and a copy scanned and emailed to CMAT.
VACCINE CARD ensuring that all your ROUTINE VACCINES are up to date, with a copy scanned and sent to CMAT.
IF POSSIBLE – documentation of evidence of not having TB is also requested. (We are confirming whether this requirement is mandatory.)
All scanned and completed documents are to be attached to one single email, and sent to:[email protected]
IMPORTANT: Please indicate the specific dates within the ‘availability field’ dates which are fully confirmed, (i.e. tentative or pending shift trades etc. does not count. Your dates must be fully confirmed), as well as indicating possible duration of availability noting specific dates.
ALL FIELDS ON THE EXCEL FORM ARE MANDATORY. We currently do not have the time nor resources to manage the overwhelming number of applications in any other format. Incomplete forms will be rejected.
All potential CMAT members must have a complete and updated profile registered on the CMAT website. Please log in and update your profile at:
**Please note: due to recent high traffic volume, our website and registration page does occasionally experience some glitches. Please try again if you encounter an error.**
Kindly understand that we are all volunteers, and are getting inundated with hundreds of emails and phone calls, as well as working hard on response coordination (and our own full time jobs!!). By sending back your completed excel sheet and required documents, we will place you on our standby list, but we will be contacting you only if deployment is confirmed, and you are moved to the deployment list.
