Above: Firefighters and NHS personnel wearing powered respirator protective suits are pictured with a 'patient' in the decontamination unit.
Below: A panoramic view of the emergency exercise site.
6 July 2009
An emergency exercise was staged at Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust yesterday to test how quickly firefighters and hospital staff could set up and operate a decontamination site.
It involved crews from Bletchley, Broughton and Great Holm Fire Stations and about 20 hospital staff.
Geoff Bottle, Station Manager at Broughton, said: “Both organisations have to have plans in place to deal with a multitude of possible scenarios, including many which we hope will never happen.
“The scenario used for Sunday’s exercise was a chemical incident resulting in the contamination of a number of people in a public place.”
The decontamination unit comprises a series of showers and is operated by firefighters and NHS personnel wearing protective chemical suits.
The equipment, including a water boiler and hi-tech tents, arrived in one of Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s specialist vehicles called the Incident Response Unit.
Geoff added: “This was a good opportunity to test our joint working using this particular scenario. For the purposes of the exercise, we were looking at how we would be able to cope in the event of a steady stream of people unable to walk being brought to the hospital following a chemical incident.
“The exercise proved that the two agencies could set up a decontamination unit in the hospital grounds very quickly after an incident – it was up and running within 40 minutes.”
Jayne Skippen, Head of Hospital Access at Milton Keynes Hospital, said: “This exercise was vitally important to ensure our preparedness for a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident. This was an opportunity for us to test specific parts of our major incident plan, in detail. The simulation enabled staff to gain vital emergency and major incident experience.
“The exercise, designed to test our response to the release of a chemical substance, showed that we have robust plans in place to ensure the safety of local people. The test has also helped us to identify ways in which we can improve the health response to emergencies.”