Staff learn about medical history

Statue of Professor Frank Pantridge and his portable defibrallator at Lisburn Civic Centre

Medical staff from around Northern Ireland will gather in Lisburn this weekend to take a trip through the history of frontline medicine from the 1600’s to today discovering how the operational planning process works in response to a humanitarian crisis.

Being hosted by Army Medical Services todays doctors and nurses will be hearing at first hand how medical intervention often takes place in hostile environments and how best to help non-governmental organisations around the globe when crisis emerge.

Under the title of ‘Viruses, Epidemics and Medicine’ the delegates will be in the company of medical Army Reservists from Northern Ireland who have experience on the front line in conflicts and disasters - including most recently Sierra Leone combatting ebola.

Lisburn is an ideal venue for the conference with its links to Professor Frank Partridge who served in the Second World War with the Army Medical Corps and who went on to develop the portable defibrillator.