A state-of-the-art training kit donated to Noble’s Hospital has been deployed by around 100 health care staff during a major incident exercise for the first time.
The Emergo Training System provided by the Microgaming Health & Care Trust, was used in a table-top exercise at Keyll Darree training centre last week, where hospital teams were presented with a series of challenges to respond swiftly and professionally to a virtual crisis.
The kit is designed to stress-test emergency services’ plans to deal with major incidents, and is widely used by organisations in the UK rehearsing their response to crises involving numbers of casualties, ranging from an epidemic to a train crash.
The event on Friday 4 May was led by Dr Gareth Davies, Hospital Lead for Emergency Preparedness and follows a similar exercise last year. Emergo’s numerous detailed components added a substantial extra dimension this year, with clinicians and nursing staff called on to plan their approach to the most complex range of injuries and logistical headaches to date.
Chairman of Microgaming’s Health & Care Trust Dr Roy Clague sat in on the pre-event briefing, where this year’s scenario was revealed as a serious road racing incident.
Dr Clague said:
’The simulation system will help strengthen real world communication, teamwork, crisis management and resilience during critical events; we are delighted to invest in staff training at Noble’s Hospital, to help them continue to provide the best quality of care to the island.’
The exercise saw key teams of clinicians, nurses and specialists demonstrate in real time how they would respond to the unfolding crisis, in line with the hospital’s emergency plan.
Keyll Darree’s rooms became hospital hubs for the afternoon, representing the emergency department, medical and surgical wards, operating theatres, the intensive care unit, X ray department and strategic control centre.
Hospital managers rehearsed logistical plans, responding to demands from relatives, the public and the media while keeping the hospital operationally safe. Porters, core services and communications staff also played a key role in the exercise.
Dr Davies, who planned the 2018 exercise over many months said:
‘We are extremely grateful to the Microgaming Health & Care Trust for the funding. They have given us an amazing piece of equipment to stress test our major incident plan, which can be used and reused by every department in the hospital year on year.
He added:
‘The Emergo kit will greatly improve staff preparedness, ensure our action plans are up to date and transform the way we simulate a worst-case scenario, and therefore enable us to push our staff further to develop key skills.’
A ‘hot’ debrief was held immediately after the event, where feedback was offered by each team. The Emergo Training System was widely welcomed as taking the exercise to a new level, offering scope for more engaging emergency incident simulations than in the past.
Photo: Boards showing the Emergo Training System in use Group Microgaming & ED, l-r: left: Dr Roy Clague, Chairman and Paul Novellie, Trustee, Microgaming Health & Care Trust; nurse consultant Martin Hamm and Dr Gareth Davies.
