Exercise rainy day

An armed robber who had shot a police officer, an overturned minibus with several trapped casualties, a motorcyclist trapped underneath a car and a raging fire coming from a van. That is what a team of student paramedics were confronted with on April 16.

The East of England Ambulance Service students took part in their major incident exercise day, which was held at the Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service training centre in Stevenage. Off duty ambulance staff and nurses from the nearby Lister Hospital in Stevenage kindly played the part of casualties for the day. The Hertfordshire air ambulance, Helimed 55 was due to land and take part in the exercise, but due to the adverse weather conditions, it was unable to attend.

As the rain began to pour heavily, and the mist began to fall, the first ambulance was called upon to attend a report of a multiple road traffic collision following a high speed pursuit involving firearms officers from Herts Constabulary.

Student paramedic Pete Kelly, who took on the role as ambulance incident commander said: "When I arrived at the scene it was a real eye opener. There was casualties everywhere and lots of smoke bellowing over the drill yard. Our team really worked well together and it was a great team effort. We took over an hour to treat and stabilise all the patients who had various injuries."

Lead tutor Robert Grogan said: "The whole event went extremely well and bearing in mind its only week nine of the course. The observers and the other emergency services who took part commented how well the students worked well together which is very rewarding to hear. There were many lessons learnt during this valuable exercise and I hope all the students will take away lots of tips from today's event and put them in to practice when they take to the roads over the next few weeks."

The group of students are from the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire, Essex and NSC localities. They are currently in week nine of their induction course at the trusts training centre in Bedford.