The College of West Anglia’s King’s Lynn campus was transformed into the heart of a high-intensity emergency operation on Thursday 17th July, engaging crews of local firefighters, paramedics and police officers taking part in a real-life incident.
The immersive exercise involved CWA students and staff acting as ‘victims’ for a real-life emergency simulation with a hostage taker, giving emergency responders a realistic training ground to practise lifesaving rescue techniques in a fast paced, high-pressure environment.
The emergency services used CWA’s School of Nursing Studies, which played a key role in the simulation; using the on-campus clinical training facilities as a triage centre to assess injuries. The simulation included a SimMom mannequin which is used to simulate labour, including breech delivery, manual delivery, shoulder dystocia and postpartum haemorrhage. A scenario involving the TraumaMan mannequin was used to simulate the treatment of a trauma patient, including haemorrhage control and airway management, further enhancing the realism and complexity of the exercise.
One specialised exercise with three linked incidents was carried out, allowing each emergency service to have a specific area to work on.
David Copeland, Group Manager Western District, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, said, “We carry out regular training exercises in a wide range of situations to make sure we remain skilled and prepared for any eventuality.
“We’d like to thank the College of West Anglia, the students who took part in role-playing during the exercise and all of our partner agencies who attended on the night.”
Superintendent Sonia Humphreys, West Norfolk and Breckland Commander, Norfolk Constabulary, said, “Thank you to all the partner agencies, cadets and students who took part in the multi-agency training exercise. This type of collaborative work is crucial to us being able to test our individual and collective responses to large scale incidents, with exercises like this one being necessary to ensure that in our efforts to protect the public we are prepared to respond quickly and effectively.”
Jason Leys, Leading Operations Manager for Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) in the West Norfolk locality for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) said, “Multi-agency training exercises are a vital part of our preparedness. They build confidence, enhance coordination between emergency services and ensure we’re ready to respond effectively to any situation. The large-scale exercise at the College of West Anglia in King’s Lynn provided our frontline teams with a valuable opportunity to rehearse their response to a complex incident in a safe, controlled environment. We're incredibly grateful to the College for hosting us, and to the students who took part in the role-play scenarios – their involvement added a crucial layer of realism to the training.”
Adrian Debney, Head of School of Nursing Studies, said “This exercise highlighted our ongoing development as a regional centre of excellence. Our cutting-edge suite of robotic interactive mannequins includes lifelike adults, a pregnant person delivering a baby, new-born and infant robotics and a 'Trauma Man' able to simulate major injury and blood loss. The feedback from our emergency services colleagues has been outstanding - and for the young people who volunteered their time, we were able to offer a realistic glimpse into the skills and teamwork involved in emergency situations.”
Adam Thompsett, Head of Property Services at CWA said, “The event was amazing. It was an honour to host the emergency services for this exercise. There were lots of takeaways and insights gained. It was great to see so many staff and students involved, and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy being part of it. Thanks to all involved, for making it run so smoothly.”
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