Amateur Radio in Hospitals for Emergency Use!

 During an ongoing discussion on QRZ forum regarding Amateur Radio in Emergency Communications, KJ7LVO from Spokane, Washington, mentioned that major hospitals in their region have radio rooms attached to the Emergency Rooms. Routine use for them is for ambulance dispatch which occurs in the 150 MHz band, which is quite near amateur radio VHF band. Hence it is possible to use same antenna setup in case of an emergency to use amateur radio for VHF band communications. As I was searching the web for more information, I came across Hospital Radio Network on a subdomain page of ARRL.

Hospital Radio Network is a group of radio amateurs in Oklahoma, United States, who work to link Oklahoma Hospitals using amateur radio, meant as an emergency support in case of conventional communication failure. In addition to a voice network, they could also use the Winlink email system prevalent in the US among radio amateurs. In the United States, Winlink is a network of amateur radio and authorized government stations that provide worldwide radio email using radio pathways where the internet is not present. The system has been activated even as recently as during Hurricane Lee affecting parts of Northeastern United States and Canada.

During the recent Wynad Landslide disaster, I could contact one ham who had come there for volunteer service all the way from Trivandrum. He was an ambulance driver, who could use hand held amateur radio to establish a link between Ground Zero and the adhoc amateur radio station at the district headquarters through the Wynad Phantom Rock Amateur Radio VHF repeater. Hospitals in our region could consider linking with amateur radio operators in case of massive natural disasters, though all of us hope that it should never occur. Amateur radio could be part of the routine hospital emergency preparedness drills as well. As you are very well aware, amateur radio can be used for public purpose only in a dire emergency, that too with permission from local authorities as in the case of Wynad Landslide disaster and NOT for routine third party traffic.