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Emergency Planning

As one of the three main emergency services, NEAS will perform an important role should a serious major incident occur in the North East of England.

Our staff go through rigorous and continuous training. We participate in major exercises with the Police, Fire and Rescue Service and local authorities to test our procedures. We try to anticipate a wide variety of scenarios and practise how we would deal with them.

While no two major incidents will be the same, certain common response procedures will be always be followed.

Our response needs to be flexible and effective.

Emergency Planning 2

NEAS is responsible in the North East for alerting and mobilising of all NHS resources necessary to deal with an incident. We are usually the first branch of the NHS to arrive at the scene, and in the first instance contact the necessary acute hospitals likely to be affected, along with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

The Police normally take overall control at the scene of a major incident, while the Fire and Rescue Service will undertake control of the inner cordon. This is the zone where there remains a danger to patients and responders.

We also ensure that no matter the challenges, the public will always have effective health care provision in the pre-hospital “environment”.

The primary areas of NEAS responsibility are:

To provide a focal point at the incident for all NHS and other medical resources.

To save life in conjunction with other emergency services. The treatment and care of those injured at the scene, either directly or in conjunction with medical personnel.

To establish effective triage points and systems, and determine with NHS medical support on scene. To prioritise the evacuation needs of those who are injured, and determine and alert the main 'receiving' hospitals.

To provide transport to the incident scene for the Medical Incident Commander (MIC), Mobile Medical/Surgical Teams and their equipment; ensuring that adequate medical personnel and support equipment resources are available at the scene.

To maintain emergency cover throughout the operational area during the incident.

To provide Special Operations Response Team(s) for clinical decontamination if necessary and support the Fire Services in any mass decontamination incident. The restoration to normality at the earliest opportunity.

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