To ensure the continued provision of response to disasters and mass casualty incidents, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) on Friday, June 14, announced that it renewed its partnership with the Philippine College of Surgeons (PCS).

“We are focused, fast, friendly, flexible, and forward-looking,” said PRC and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chairman Richard Gordon. “All of us are trained to act and think immediately when help is needed,” he added.

PRC said it renewed its partnership with the PCS through the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) at the PRC headquarters in Mandaluyong on June 13.

Gordon and PRC Secretary-General Dr. Gwen Pang signed the MOA with PCS President Dr. Vivencio Jose P. Villaflor III and PCS Treasurer Dr. Joselito M. Mendoza.

In the agreement, PRC and PCS vowed to optimize each other’s assets and medical services, including training surgeons in Emergency Medical Services for mass casualty incidents (MCIs) such as large-scale disasters, especially earthquakes and typhoons.

PRC said if hospitals experience a shortage of beds for patients, part of PRC’s standard response is to build Emergency Field Hospitals (EFH)."

The PCS’s member doctors, it added, will then “provide emergency medical duties” to PRC’s EFH.

Villaflor for his part, cited PRC’s equipment and facilities as key factors in the partnership.

These assets include PRC’s Volunteer Emergency Response Vehicles (VERV), Operations Center, and satellite internet.

Gordon, on the other hand, thanked PCS for its “continued collaboration” and pointed out that PRC’s successful operations lie in its two million volunteers nationwide.

The PRC, said Gordon, is considered one of the “best Red Cross organizations in the world.”

The PRC-PCS partnership dates back to 2012.

Since then, the two organizations have collaborated on several mitigation training sessions, including mass casualty incident simulation exercises, pandemic preparedness activities, and the PRC’s annual Traslacion Operation.