The media centre of the third Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference conducted a seminar on disaster medicine. The seminar discussed the importance of disaster medicine in restricting injuries and damage to the population when disasters like floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, building collapses and others that affect a large numbers of people occur. The seminar also addressed aspects of partnership between the Ministry of Interior and the Qatari Red Crescent (QRC) in the face of any emergency, and the contributions of QRC to assist the victims of the disasters in many countries in the world and its contributions in raising awareness for safety and security, whether in the event of a disaster, or before it occurs, as well as training in disaster medicine for both medical staff and those working in emergency services.Dr Mohamed Khalid Agha, head of medical services section at QRC, introduced services offered by the section. Apart from medical services, QRC medical section trains Qatari nationals and residents to take up the jobs on disaster areas. Its services are extended for Haj pilgrims and at sports venues as well.“The department is responsible body for the first 72 hours of any disaster,” Dr Agha said, adding: “QRC has its own cadres while volunteers are also utilised if so required.” Dr Agha said that training camps have been established in Doha and Al-Khor to train volunteers on dealing with disasters. “A psychological support team always accompanies the medical team at disaster locations to solace the victims and empower them mentally,” he said. For these purpose experts in the field from various countries has been appointed by the QRC. Dr Amir Riyadh Mulhim, disaster department coordinator at QRC, said that studies had proved that disasters have been on the rise during last 10 years because of climate change and other geological issues. “The most important of these disasters are earthquakes, floods and landslides. In all type of disasters there are certain conditions which require urgent intervention with minimum resources and less equipment to save a big number of souls,” Dr Mulhim said. He added that quick response with minimum equipments to save maximum number of lives is the spirit of disaster medicine.The disaster department of QRC has two units – response unit, and preparedness unit. The later qualifies its cadres for disaster management through training programmes approved by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “QRC has partnerships with Qatar Foundation and Hamad Medical Corporation for this purpose,” he pointed out. Dr Mulhim also pointed out that in the Arab region, sufficient medical practitioners are not available in the field of disaster medicine because of difficult nature of the job.