EEAST tests major incident response in Hertfordshire exercise

EEAST took part in a major incident exercise at the Galleria shopping centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire late on Sunday night, to test the emergency services’ operational response to a fast-moving major incident.

Both Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) in partnership with staff from the Trust ambulance intervention team responded to the exercise, along with a number of officers and support staff. They met dramatic scenes at the exercise, with hundreds of casualties ranging from walking wounded to those with potentially life-threatening conditions and worked closely with police and fire service colleagues to respond to the incident.

Steven Moore, Deputy Head of Resilience and Special Operations said: “Fortunately major incidents don’t happen often but you can never practice enough. Exercises like this help us learn how to respond even better and it gives staff vital first-hand experience of what being at a major incident can be like.

“We will be evaluating how the exercise went and what we can learn from it in the next few weeks.”

The next resilience exercise will be taking place later this month.

Published 1st May, 2014