Hospital practises drills for nuclear incidents

Hospital staff have taken part in practice drills to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents.

The emergency response teams at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust donned hazmat suits for the exercises at both Southend and Basildon hospitals on Thursday.

Similar exercises are planned for Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford early next month.

"It's about making sure our teams are confident, capable and ready to respond to anything - no matter how unlikely it may seem," said Steve Arrowsmith, head of emergency response team.

Mr Arrowsmith said "our on-call commanders" walked the team through had the incidents happened in "real life".

"This gave them valuable, hands-on insight to help build their situational awareness into how a major incident would unfold."

The teams built decontamination shelters, and ran through decontamination procedures, while volunteer patients were triaged, stripped, and sent through a shelter.

Jennifer Marshall, deputy director of nursing at Southend hospital, said: "Exercises like this are a crucial part of emergency planning across the NHS.

"They allow clinical and operational teams to train side-by-side, in realistic conditions, and stay one step ahead."

The separate practices at each site gave staff the chance to ask questions, troubleshoot problems, and see how each part of the response fits together, a spokesperson said.

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