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Mass casualty exercise
On Wednesday March 31 Capital & Coast DHB was part of a regional mass casualty exercise designed to test the robustness of emergency services to respond to a crisis situation.
This year's scenario was bigger than usual and began just before 10am with a report of a Boeing 737 being on fire at Wellington Airport. Inside was 38 Whitireia Polytechnic paramedic students who had put their bodies on the line by undergoing several hours of intensive makeup application.
More than 80 DHB staff were directly involved across many departments including ED, Theatres, Radiology, ODP, Mental Health, Volunteers, PSCU and Orderlies, while many other ward staff and services took part assessing patients for discharge, testing staff call back procedures and liaising with Hutt Valley DHB's burns unit.
"We need to regularly test our emergency procedures and it's only through a large situation like this where we work with Wellington Free Ambulance, police and fire services that we can do this. We are always looking for better ways to do things and this exercise adds real value in helping us refine and improve on our emergency procedures," said Emergency management service leader Greg Phillips.
Click on photos for a larger version.
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