PMM EMT built a field clinic in Świętouście
29.08.2025
Reading time
less then minute
Between August 21–24, at the Łódź-Bałuty Scout District Base in Świętouście, the Emergency Medical Team of the Polish Medical Mission (PMM EMT) held intensive training exercises. The team members simulated a deployment to a crisis zone and set up a field clinic to support and relieve local services.
The training focused primarily on refining procedures that will allow the team to be quickly deployed in Poland or abroad in the future. On the training grounds, the field clinic was set up and dismantled multiple times. The goal was to ensure that every team member, whether a logistician or a doctor, knows how to quickly and safely assemble the inflatable tents that will host patients.
Between setting up tents, the team also had time for learning and integration. During discussion panels, members shared their experiences from missions in Africa, talking about the conditions they encountered there, the most urgent needs, and key safety rules during such deployments. The participants also faced field challenges – both medical and logistical – which they solved using only the equipment they had on hand.
For our medics and logisticians this was not only a test of endurance and physical fitness, but also a lesson in working together in difficult terrain and conditions. Regardless of the weather or time of day, we had to face tasks that tested our knowledge and skills – not only medical but also logistical. From transporting equipment through inaccessible terrain, to performing resuscitation in the middle of the forest in the rain, to building stretchers from materials found in the woods, says PMM EMT nurse Kamila Kadłubicka.
Preparing for an emergency deployment (EMT) is not only about packing medicines and medical equipment. It also requires a wide range of logistical preparations to ensure the team’s full independence from local resources, including water and electricity. The team is responsible for its own accommodation and food, which is why auxiliary tents always accompany the field clinic, providing space for sleeping and cooking.
“On an EMT deployment, we won’t be sleeping in hotels,” said PMM EMT member Bartłomiej Banachowicz. “We are fully responsible for our own accommodation and food. That’s why during the exercises we do our own shopping, cooking, and cleaning. We sleep in tents right next to our field clinic.”
Gallery
-
1 / 5 -
2 / 5 -
3 / 5 -
4 / 5 -
5 / 5
Training maneuvers in Świętouście
Polish Medical Mission Emergency Medical Team
The mission of PMM EMT is to provide rapid medical assistance in areas affected by natural disasters and humanitarian crises – both in Poland and abroad. It is a specialized medical team of the Polish Medical Mission, ready for quick deployment at home or internationally. The team consists of doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, and logistics and technical support specialists. It operates in accordance with the WHO EMT Type 1 Fixed standard and can rapidly establish a field clinic to provide primary healthcare, stabilize patients, and support local services in crisis-affected areas.
In 2024, the team operated in four countries – Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, and Poland – providing care to 1,669 patients and training 93 people.
