Published: October 26, 2006 10:42 pm      

Medical Reserve Corps needs volunteers

ASHLAND — About a year ago, the Ashland-Boyd County-Cattletsburg Medical Reserve Corps was founded.

Then no one heard about if for a long time.

A period of inactivity and managerial shuffling kept the fledgling group from getting off the ground.

But now the local MRC has a new director in Renee Hammond, and a new focus to assist in health and disaster issues in the area.

“I think it will be a real asset to our community,” Hammond said at a recruitment gathering Thursday night at the Boyd County Office of Emergency Management in Ashland.

The Medical Reserve Corps is a national program started in 2002 and designed to allow medical and public health volunteers to offer their services during times of need. MRC programs can help with anything from vaccinations and health screenings to assisting emergency response personnel and helping with disaster relief efforts.

The program was mainly a federal response to terrorism, though there are plenty of other uses for it, said Mark Hammond, a local fire and rescue training coordinator, Boyd County EMS paramedic and volunteer firefighter.

From flooding, to ice storms to the occasional train accident — like the one in Catlettsburg this week where two engines collided — there are plenty of emergencies that happen locally, Hammond said.

“Just because it seems small in scale doesn’t mean that it is small to everybody,” he said. “That’s what we have to remember.”

Ashland’s MRC program is one of 10 registered in the state. The group is seeking volunteers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, emergency medical technicians, and a host of others from medical fields, along with nonmedical volunteers, to make the program a success.

“The more volunteers we have, the better this organization is going to be,” Hammond said.

One of the things the organization would like to start doing right away is assisting the county health department with distributing vaccinations. The group would also like to provide assistance to firefighters in conducting what is referred to as “instant rehab” at the scene of the fire — that is, checking a firefighters blood pressure and other vitals when he comes out of a blaze to make sure he hasn’t suffered any adverse health affects and can continue doing his job.

An MRC group providing that kind of service would free up paramedics to perform other duties.

Boyd Emergency Management Director Matt Adkins said he believes it is important for the local MRC to start getting active in order to help the community.

“We need to use it while we’ve got it, rather than just saying we have one,” he said.

BEN FIELDS can be reached at bfields@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.