EMERGENCY services swerved into the Armidale Regional Airport for a Civil Aviation Safety Authority crash simulation.
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State Emergency Services, NSW Paramedics, Armidale Hospital staff, NSW Fire and Rescue, the Dumaresq Rural Fire Service and Armidale Local Area Command police all came together for the exercise.
Armidale Paramedics NSW station officer Michael Partridge said for them, the exercise was business as usual.
“We ended up with 18 patients total and five deceased amongst that, but as far as extricating and patient transport it went nice and smoothly,” he said.
“It’s a learning experience for all of us.”
The simulation required paramedics to airlift two critical patients.
“We do it quite often in our jobs but not on this scale, we were dealing with more vehicles and patients and it’s just a case of communication between the agencies.
“If it does happen for real we want everything to go well and to have those patient transfers and treatment go as smoothly as possible.”
Armidale Fire and Rescue NSW station commander Steve McWhirter was equally impressed with the response from his team and the other agencies.
“Everything went smoothly from our end, our role was fire protection and prevention,” he said.
“We assist them and they assist us, ambulance provides first aid and triage, the Rural Fire Service assists us with anything that we need, SES provide extrication from the fuselage – everybody helps everybody.”