Emergency services exercise at Historic Dockyard

The News, Portsmouth

Emergency services exercise in Historic Dockyard

Transcript

00:00Yes, I'm Richard Corbett. I'm the Chief Executive of Hampshire Nile of White Air Ambulance.

00:28And today what we're doing is we're running an emergency exercise to see how the air ambulance

00:34crews would work with other emergency services in the event of a mass casualty event. So what

00:40happened today was there was an explosion, a gas canister blew up. And so we worked through the

00:45process of the local team at the naval dockyards responding, so the people who work here, and then

00:51them calling on the emergency services. The police were the first to arrive, and that was followed

00:57quickly by the ambulance crews and our own air ambulance crew as well. So we've built

01:02up that picture and the fire service as well. So we're working together to survey the situation,

01:09see what's happening, and to treat those that need most critical care. So they're absolutely

01:14vital. I mean, on a daily basis our crews are going to respond to incidents, but it's not

01:18often that we respond with lots of other emergency services to events where there's lots of casualties.

01:24So we'll work closely with the ambulance crews and the fire crews on incidents like car crashes and

01:30where somebody has a traumatic medical injury. But those tend to be on a smaller scale. So this is

01:37about taking that to another level and seeing how do you really work in really chaotic situations

01:42where there's lots of different bits of the jigsaw you need to put together to treat the right

01:47people in the right order. And so in any instance, the first responders are going to be those people

01:54who are locally in the area. And they have a vital role in passing information and communicating with

01:59the emergency services about the situation and getting the right response. So that came from the

02:06trained people who work at the Naval Dockyards who called in the type of incident it was so that we were

02:13able to send the right crews. So that was the fire service, the police, the ambulance service and also

02:20the air ambulance. So our ambulance has now landed but we were later at the scene because those local

02:27people were doing that initial response. And it's really important to practice that because it is

02:32always the first responder is somebody who's not that well trained, they just happen to be there.

02:36And it's making sure that as much as possible, we can practice those steps and work all the way

02:43through the process. The biggest challenge in a mass casualty event is looking at who do you treat

02:48and in what order do you treat people. So when the initial response occurred, those that were able to

02:53walk out the building, left the building and would go to the triage tent. And then the medical crews in

02:59there can look at who are the most injured and provide them with the immediate care. As the exercise progresses,

03:06the more seriously injured people will be brought out of the building because the context inside is

03:12really difficult, there's lots of smoke, it's a difficult place to operate. So they'll bring them

03:16to a place where it's more easy to give the care they need and then they will arrange for onward

03:21transport to hospital. So they'll be again triaging, focusing on who are the people that need to be

03:27moved most quickly, what care do we deliver on the ground here and doing it in an environment where

03:32they're setting up an A&E type setup as much as they can do on the scene of the incident. It's an

03:39initial kind of holding point where we can corral the patients, we've got the medical crews there,

03:46so it's not any more chaotic scene where people are running around the building looking for casualties,

03:52it's a more organised set up and therefore they're starting to do medical procedures in that set up

03:58and also ensuring that we're sending people on to hospitals in the right order.

04:03In a situation like this, the main thing that we add to the scene is looking at the patients,

04:10looking at the condition they're in and prioritising where the medical facilities are here, who should

04:15be dealt with first and also where those patients should be sent. Because we can't send everybody

04:22off to one hospital because you just swamped that hospital, so they will be deciding and categorising people

04:29so that they're sending them on, they're getting the right support here from the ambulance crews

04:33and also from our teams, but also that next phase of who goes now, where next. So a lot of it is about

04:40managing the scene rather than necessarily delivering care on the spot. They'll be doing both,

04:47but that scene management is so important when it's a master casualty event.

04:51There's no really typical operation, you know, clearly in terms of a situation like this where

04:56there's a lot of people, it would last a fairly, you know, large amounts of time because those that

05:01are most ill will be looked after first and then moved through to hospitals. But those that are kind

05:09of walking wounded, then again, you know, there'll be some who can be treated on the scene and just

05:13sent home. Others will again have to go on to hospital. So it depends on the nature of the number

05:19of casualties, you know, what their injuries are and where the next steps are in terms of the process.

05:26going forward to the thunderstorms.

05:29And I'll see you later on.

05:29We'll see you later on.

05:30Bye-bye.

05:31Bye.

05:32Bye-bye.

05:33Bye-bye.

05:35Bye-bye.

05:37Bye-bye.

05:38Bye-bye.

05:53Bye-bye.

05:55Bye-bye.

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