3 minute read
Practice makes perfect
from Your Call - Issue 18
by NWAmbulance
Throughout the year we support hundreds of large-scale public events, including football matches and concerts. That’s not any different during the summer. Even when we don’t have a large role in providing medical care, we want to make sure the public is kept safe.
One example of this is the annual Parklife Festival in Manchester, which took place over a weekend at the beginning of June. More than 140,000 people visited Heaton Park over the two days.
Ahead of the event, organisers, blue light services and health and local authority agencies, including the council and Transport for Greater Manchester, got together at Manchester Central to run a tabletop exercise to test the safety plans in place.
Many extreme scenarios were discussed, including what would happen if unsafe recreational drugs caused a mass casualty incident, if there was severe transport disruption and even if a sinkhole opened on the main road route to the festival.
Resilience Manager Nick Bell said, “We organised the event to ensure plans are flexible and robust.
“We don’t expect the worst to happen, but it’s important to know that everyone involved knows what they would do if it did and also make sure that the plans are sufficient to keep people safe. On the day, we had detailed discussions about the processes in place, and where there were any gaps, agencies could go away and reassess in time for the event.
“While NWAS had a minimal number of resources on the site, we still have a major role in keeping people safe. These exercises are vital, and we try to make sure these tests are held before all major events.”
Advanced Paramedic Martin Rolls, acts as the NWAS operational commander at Parklife. He said: “A third-party provider was responsible for the primary medical care for the festival; NWAS was there simply to provide backup in case the worst happened.
“Happily, none of the scenarios we tested for came to fruition. Given how slick and professional the running of Parklife is, it was still impressive to see how plans kicked into place when things didn’t quite go as scheduled. All agencies are there for the safety of festival goers, and that focus remained in place all weekend.”
Photo credit Sam Neill, Parklife Festival.
