This in from the Isle of Wight NHS in their own words. Ed
Isle of Wight NHS Trust is a ‘category one’ emergency responder to major incidents. This covers both the Ambulance Service and St. Mary’s Hospital. It is a statutory requirement that ‘category one’ responders test their ability to respond to major incidents.
A test of the Emergency Department at St. Mary’s Hospital took place this morning, Thursday 16th January, between 09:15hrs and 11:45hrs. The exercise has now ended.
Mock major incident
The incident involved 14 mock ‘patients’ made up to look like real casualties. The ‘casualties’ arrived over a two hour period at the Main Entrance at St. Mary’s Hospital. The casualties did not arrive in ambulances with ‘blue lights’ or sirens sounding.
Hospital staff were notified at 09:15hrs by telephone that a major incident had been declared and they could expect casualties to start arriving within 15 minutes.
Casualties were met by hospital staff at the main entrance and moved through the area to a temporary triage area in the Beacon Health Centre.
Extra staff on duty
Additional staff were called in to help manage the incident and there were some changes to the way minor injuries were handled for around three hours this morning (Thursday 16th January). A temporary clinic was established in the Fracture Clinic on the ground floor at St. Mary’s.
Patients attending the Beacon Health Centre still entered via the main entrance at St. Mary’s and booked in at the Beacon Health Centre reception desk. However, depending on the nature of their condition, they may have been asked to walk round to the temporary clinic for treatment.
We hope patients understood need for the exercise
Alan Sheward, Executive Director of Nursing and Workforce with the lead responsibility for emergency planning at Isle of Wight NHS Trust says:
“It is important that we test our systems for responding to a major incident. We did this today whilst offering as near normal service for real patients.
“We endeavoured to minimise any inconvenience to patients who we hope understood the need for us to undertake this important exercise.”
