A planned emergency exercise will be taking place within and around Walsall Manor Hospital’s Emergency Department this week with healthcare staff and members of West Midlands Fire Service all taking part.

Members of the public are being reassured that the exercise forms part of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) programme – the NHS needs to plan for, and respond to, a wide range of incidents and emergencies that could affect health or patient care. Exercises such as this are a vital way of testing arrangements in place in the event of an emergency or incident.

The simulated fire exercise between 9.30am and 12.30pm on Wednesday 29 September will see an emergency scenario set for staff and the fire service. Several vehicles from West Midlands Fire Service will be on-site as part of this; there is no cause for alarm. All vehicles will leave the hospital site once the exercise has finished and no healthcare services will be affected whilst it takes place.

Mark Hart, Walsall Healthcare’s Head of EPRR said: “The exercise offers a great opportunity for staff to experience a pressurised environment and understand how key decisions would be made, as well as giving them the chance to work with multi-agency partners, strengthening our relationships with them.

“Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major incident for more than a year now it’s so important that we prepare for any other eventualities that could impact our services. As our Emergency Department will be in a brand new building in autumn 2022, exercises such as this will help to consolidate achieving best practice for a successful team.”