HAZMED Service In West Yorkshire Mike Gent, CCDC, HPA Mick Hardaker, CBRN Manager, YAS Sophie Haroon, SpR, Public Health Simon Padfield, SpR, Public Health

Why set up the service? Few chemical incidents in Y&H? HPA being left out – HPA didn’t know it would like to be involved – Others didn’t know the HPA existed – Others didn’t know what the HPA could offer – Didn’t know how to contact each other

Drivers for the Ambulance Service Several incidents where ambulance crews inadvertently exposed to chemicals Contaminated casualties taken to A&E No access to chemical information Had to ask the fire service HPA and YAS working on the same problem

Working Together Introductions – WYFRS – YAS – HPA – EA – LA Incident Reporting criteria Communications

WYF & RS MOBILISATION AND COMMS CENTRE YAS HAZMED Officers VIA YAS COMMs CENTRE (24 hours) Seacroft Lodge CCDC on call out of hours CCDC for District Involved West Yorks HPU (working hours) HPA CHAPDs

Joint Risk Assessment 1.HAZMED officer attends the incident, collects information and makes an assessment 2.Contacts Local HPA if appropriate 3.Joint risk assessment 4.Local HPA may contact CHaPDs for expert advice 5.Local HPA acts as the gateway to other parts of “Health” e.g. PCT, local hospitals 6.HAZMED officers acts as eyes and ears for health at the scene

Positive aspects of the service: HAZMED views: ­Expectations were in keeping with training ­Good support and advice received from HPU staff ­Important role that fills an operational gap

Positive aspects of the service: HAZMAT views ­HAZMEDs easy to contact ­Information provided useful and appropriate wrt decontamination requirements, relating hazardous materials to symptoms, casualty management, and liaison with wider health community ­service has facilitated stronger links between ambulance and fire services

Positive aspects of the service: Other agency views (HPA, LA, EA) ­An intelligent frontline in the context of a wider health response ­An early warning system that would ensure early engagement with health services which may prevent incidents from escalating ­A complimentary service to the role of the HAZMAT officer to enable better risk assessment and decision making at an incident ­A way of improving communication between emergency services and external partners like the HPA ­It had also served to improve surveillance of incidents

Learning and development points – “In at deep end” at start – Ongoing training updates – Feedback, sharing of practice and review meetings – Initial communication problems – Getting information to HAZMEDs at the scene for complex incidents – Roll out

Key points from evaluation Enhanced surveillance of major fires and chemical incidents Improved communication between the multiple agencies involved Fulfills an operational gap Enables HPA expertise to be delivered at the scene of a major incident; Hazmed officers are the “eyes and ears” of the HPA and more besides Ensures better management of major incidents Ensures better staff safety Ensures better safety for the public

Future aims On-going multi-agency training with Fire, Ambulance, A&E and HPA Development of multi-agency feedback on incidents Extending the database of logged incidents into more formal surveillance networks Strengthening and modifying contingency plans in light of the surveillance data Expanding the scheme to all of Yorkshire and beyond, with HAZMED teams fit for purpose for local demands