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.
NEAS is primarily 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 effected, along with the
Health Protection Agency (HPA).
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.
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.
HART (Hazardous Area Response) Team
The North East Ambulance Service also has a Hazardous Area
Response Team.
Click here to find out
more about HART
Local Resillience Forums
A Local Resillience Forum is a group
made up of a number of organisations who would need to speak to
each other in the event of a major incident.
LRF's meet on a regular basis to
ensure all of the necessary plans and procedures are in place.
There are three LRF's in the North
East covering different parts of the region - Northumbria LRF,
Cleveland LRF and Durham LRF.
Below are some useful links about
their activities.
http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=8179
https://www.durham.police.uk/Information-and-advice/Pages/Local-Resilience-Forum.aspx
www.clevelandemergencyplanning.info/clrf-information-links/community-risks/
Cleveland Risk Register
brochure
