Last updated at 11:36, Thursday, 28 May 2009

VISITORS and patients at Furness General Hospital could easily have been forgiven for thinking that a major disaster had taken place.

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People entering the hospital were issued with special suits and had to go through a shower to get in.

But what looked like a mass decontamination at the Barrow hospital was an exercise as emergency staff were shown how to cope with chemical warfare.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue led the exercise yesterday, demonstrating to medical staff how patients would be decontaminated before entering the hospital.

Volunteers were issued with special suits before they were walked through the decontamination shower unit, watched by police, firefighters, ambulance staff and doctors. After leaving the shower, patients were then be given clean clothing and allowed to enter the hospital.

In the event of a nuclear leak or chemical warfare, the multi-agency decontamination procedure would be implemented in a bid to reduce cross-contamination and treat affected patients quickly without risk to staff.

Ulverston-based Paul Turner, who is Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Trainer for Cumbria police, said: “In the event of this kind of incident, the police would cordon off the hot zone, or the incident area, and prevent any public order or disorder with regard to assisting the fire brigade and people coming into the mass decontamination unit.”

The yearly exercise was led by Barrow fire station manager, Roger Exley, who was assisted by watch manager Steve Wright.

Mr Wright said: “It is the aim to be processing up to five men and five women at a time through the decontamination unit. The procedure takes around three minutes and relies on strong links between agencies involved - the police, fire service and medical staff.”

Sydney Schneidman, consultant in emergency medicine for the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, said 15 staff at FGH had received special training to assist with the decontamination.

Mr Schneidman added: “We also have our own decontamination system inside the hospital as well, which we can deploy while we are waiting for this to be set up, in order to deal with patients as quickly as possible.”

First published at 11:37, Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk