ABSTRACT
Canada has a good National Medical Stockpile valued at 21 million dollars and consisting of packaged emergency medical units ready for use in peacetime or wartime disaster. These units are available for release to provinces for pre-positioning in selected communities provided that certain storage conditions are met and that physicians and other key health workers are prepared to take operational charge of the equipment. The major packaged units are the Emergency Hospital with a capacity of 200 beds, the Advanced Treatment Centre with equipment to give emergency medical care to 500 casualties, the Casualty Collecting Unit with equipment to give first-aid care to 500 casualties, the Emergency Blood Depot, the Emergency Clinic and the Emergency Public Health Laboratory. In addition, training equipment, supplies and units are provided.The value of the stockpile has already been demonstrated in disasters occurring inside and outside Canada. Ten Emergency Hospitals have been shipped to South Vietnam for civilian use. A similar Emergency Hospital was flown to Yellowknife, N.W.T., within 24 hours of the destruction, by fire, of the Stanton Yellowknife Hospital in May 1966.
