Exercise Milo - Rehearsing London's Health Response, UK

The Health Protection Agency, on behalf of the Department of Health and in conjunction with NHS London, will be holding Exercise Milo to train London's Emergency Services and prepare and exercise their health-led response to potential major incidents.


The event will be held at the ExCeL London conference centre and at the Homerton Hospital on June 29 2010.


This field exercise will involve a variety of participants (known as 'players') ranging from NHS London to the Metropolitan Police and Amputees in Action. The scenario for the exercise involves a chemical incident at a major sporting event for disabled athletes. Exercise Milo was created specifically to include disabled people, something that has never been tested this widely before.


Some 600 people in total will be involved in the exercise: 150 of them players from the emergency services, 120 volunteer casualties, 150 controlling and evaluating staff as well as staff volunteers at the Homerton Hospital


"Exercise Milo provides an excellent opportunity for London to rehearse its planned response to a major incident in the capital," said Andy Wapling, Head of Emergency Preparedness, NHS London. "Nothing on this scale has been attempted before, with the rehearsed decontamination of both disabled and able bodied casualties and all of London's emergency services providing their response to the incident. NHS London are looking forward to learning from the day and will be able to share this good practice across the NHS and with other partner agencies to continue to ensure that London is prepared".


As part of its remit and on behalf of the Department of Health, the HPA Emergency Response Department leads a series of exercises across England to enable the NHS to improve health preparedness to a range of potential incidents, including natural hazards, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) events and new or re-emerging threats. This includes one or more annual field exercises.


"A multiagency planning group has helped to plan this exercise over many months," said Gillian Dacey, HPA Exercise Manager. "Exercise Milo has been set up to give emergency response participants the opportunity to train and evaluate their skillset, and to take vital learning points, from a safe environment."


Source
Health Protection Agency