On the evening of Tuesday 25 March, teams from the North East Ambulance Service took part in a multi-agency exercise at St James’ Park with emergency service colleagues from Northumbria Police and Tyne and Wear Fire & Rescue Service.
The exercise, which was planned before Newcastle United’s historic Carabao Cup win, was part of regular training across the services to prepare for large-scale emergency events like terrorist attacks. Members of the public are to be assured that this training was routine and part of the service’s interagency training that is conducted throughout the year.
Strategic head of emergency preparedness, resilience, and response for the ambulance service, Stu Holliday said: “Exercising in this way with our partner colleagues is a great opportunity to test our plans in the event of an incident of this nature. It’s also a chance for our teams to utilise their skills and improve their preparedness for responding to any large-scale event.
“Whilst we hope we never need to respond to an event of this nature in real life, we do want to know that we have both the skills and experience to do our best for our community and patients.”
NEAS’ deputy strategic head of emergency preparedness, resilience, and response, Andy Sessford said: “‘Exercises like this provide a valuable opportunity to develop, test and strengthen emergency responses for deploying to major incidents and ensure clear lines of communication between all of those involved. Multi-agency working and collaboration is vital in the life-saving role we provide.
“This exercise was a clear opportunity for all the blue light services and other partners to enhance their skills and training. It allows our specialist and non-specialist teams the opportunity to hone their skills and encourage other organisations to familiarise themselves with how other partners work so that we are all ready and prepared to respond in the event of a real incident to help protect and care for our communities’.