What can be found in the military IFAKs and medic packs?
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has almost tripled – up to 700 thousand men, and the entire security and defence sector (including border guards, the police and the National Guard) now makes about 1 million people. Naturally, the needs for supplying the defenders, including medical supplies, have grown just as rapidly, and due to the sharp increase in demand, there have been some problems with centralised supply, in particular, of combat first aid kits. To help the army, volunteers, charities and NGOs have started to equip individual first aid kits for soldiers and bags for combat medics.To get more news about ifak pouch army, you can visit rusuntacmed.com official website.
The Order of the Ministry of Healthcare (MoH) of Ukraine No. 6 of January 5, 2017 regulates the main requirements for tactical medical kits. The act approved, among other things, the "List of Medicines and Medical Products to be in Standard-Issue Individual Medical Kits (SIIMK)." The mentioned format of the medical kit matches the standard of the American Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care, which is followed by NATO militaries.
"Take the American IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) and our SIIMK – their contents are actually the same. That is just 90% was "copied and pasted." And this is fine. Because the TCCC Committee standard is based on the statistics of previous wars, and there is something to rely on," Ivan Nikolenko, head of tactical medicine at Solomyanski Kotyky ('Solomyanka Kitties') charitable foundation, explains.
The IFAK is equipped in such a way that a fighter can provide himself with first aid or immediately receive it in case of injury and before the evacuation. This is done with the means from his IFAK, which mainly includes medical items and consumables.
This list from the MoH allows supplementing kits with additional medicines and medical products, depending on the task, the serviceman's training level and the likelihood of potential damage by radiological, chemical or biological weapons. The American IFAK in its extended version, in turn, is equipped with: an eye shield (pad), an additional bandage for tamponade, a decompression needle and a hydrogel burn relief pack.
What is wrong with the Ministry of Health standard?
Combat medics, medical officers and tactical medicine instructors point out that the standardised model of a first aid kit that is approved by the Ministry of Health is not bad; but it is arranged in the order other than that in which medical goods and medications are used in practice.
According to the MARCH algorithm (TCCS Protocol), it is always essential to stop massive bleeding at first (apply a tourniquet and/or tamponade the wound), because death caused by it can occur within 3-5 minutes. In this case, the wounded becomes unconscious from blood loss in 45-90 seconds, so he has even less time for self-help.
Then, according to the protocol, one needs to secure patency of airways, close all open chest wounds, examine the wounded for other bleeding, check pulse and breathing (if necessary, start start CPR), check head injuries, prevent hypothermia and only then decide whether painkillers, antibiotics, etc. are needed. Whereas medicines are listed first in the list of the Ukrainian authority.
Another comment from practitioners: the list approved by the MoH leaves a "room for manoeuvre" for the compilers of kits. This, primarily, refers to the choice of the tourniquet. The Ministry suggests putting "a CAT-type mechanical means of haemorrhage control" in the first aid kits without specifying to which extent the "type" has to be. Following the logic of the Order No. 6, the presence of a windlass rod in the tourniquet is enough to be a "CAT-type device." But the tourniquet is a complex mechanism, which is subject to strict requirements: it must be made of high-quality durable materials, and before putting into operation it must undergo various tests: to ensure it will work and not break (deform) or change its qualities in any weather, hold a relatively constant pressure on the limb (350-300 mmHg) for two or more hours, etc. Therefore, to make this device on a 3D printer, sew it yourself or replace it with cheap Chinese counterparts means to expose the soldier to danger, because he will not have a second chance to apply the tourniquet on the battlefield.
Doctors and tactical medicine instructors unanimously state that you may by no means save on a fighter's medical kit and even more so on the tourniquet. According to the Solomyanski Kotyky’s head of tactical medicine, the 100% safe option today is only to use tourniquets recommended by the TCCC Committee (CAT by the American manufacturer North American Rescue, for example) and SICH-Tourniquet by the domestic company Sich Ukraine.