Queen's Hospital no dummy on fire drill training - Burton Mail

08:00 Friday 21 September 2012? Written by ALEX WAINWRIGHT

AN emergency fire drill involving new hi-tech mannequins that can mimic life-threatening conditions is to be held at Burton?s Queen?s Hospital.

Queen's hospital

The training day will see vacant wards at the hospital transformed into a 22-bed community health unit, three-bed and 13-seated mental health unit, a four-bed critical care unit and a six-bed emergency admissions unit.

The live multi-agency exercise is to be held on October 7, between 9.30am and noon.

More than 70 staff and volunteers from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust, Combined Healthcare NHS Trust and Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are to take part in the exercise to test the response to fire evacuation.

The SimMan mannequins will occupy the critical care beds for evacuation by the fire service and a West Midlands Ambulance Service team.

Hospital staff will be playing the parts of patients or be responsible for evacuating the smoke-logged wards as if on a real shift.

Harmless smoke will also be created by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue to give the scenario a sense of realism, and firefighters will use the relevant breathing apparatus.

Staffordshire Police and the hazardous area response team from West Midlands Ambulance Service will also provide support during the exercise.

The NHS in Staffordshire will be the first in the UK to run an emergency drill involving mannequins which can ?talk?, blink and breathe, exhibit vital signs such as breathing, blood pressure and pulse, and mimic a range of health problems.

Geraint Griffiths, deputy chief executive of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS Partnership Trust, said: ?The NHS continuously tests how it would respond to a major incident, which could be anything from a road accident involving multiple casualties to a large fire.

?The exercise offers us the unique opportunity to help us to evaluate the effectiveness of our response to an incident and to develop emergency plans.? The hospital will remain open as usual and patients should experience little or no disruption during the exercise.

The police and fire services will be in attendance, and those living close to the Belvedere Road site have been advised that it is an exercise.

Jackie Jones, Burton Hospitals? director with responsibilities for civil contingencies, said: ?The exercise will be as realistic as we can make it, without causing unnecessary disruption.

?Working on cross-agency initiatives like this allows us to test, learn and plan in a collaborative way so we can act in a more effective and cohesive way in the event of a real-life situation.?

Source: http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Queens-Hospital-no-dummy-on-fire-drill-training-21092012.htm

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