Don’t let the field hospital and ambulance parade concern you, this is a drill.
The Nottawasaga Landfill in Clearview Township will be ground zero for a planned hazardous material emergency response exercise and the “patients” will be taken to the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital (CGMH) where there will be a treatment tent set up in the physician parking lot.
The tent is for response to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies. The exercise will take place Friday, Sept. 21 and will be a joint effort between the County of Simcoe, local emergency response units, Canadian Forces Base Borden, local hospital staff, and representatives from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. The exercise will run from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with planned activities at the landfill and hospital, but not inside the hospital. The exercise won’t interfere with regular hospital use.
Mock patients will be arriving by ambulance at the hospital on Friday morning.
“This exercise is an excellent opportunity for the organization to test its response time for a mass casualty event and work with community partners to provide a safe and effective response to the situation. It’s an excellent learning opportunity for all involved, should an emergency of this magnitude ever unfold,” says Norah Holder, CGMH President and CEO.
A Code Orange is an external community disaster or emergency situation that will have an impact on the capacity of hospital services.
For CGMH it means that the hospital will need to be prepared for an influx of patients with varying conditions and severity of injury, while at the same time maintaining regular service levels. All of this will test the hospital's emergency response plan and help to identity any opportunities to improve the quality of CGMH's overall response.
