FROM the outside, an emergency can seem like a frantic, evolving situation where humans have little control over its direction.
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But from the moment a person finds themselves in severe distress, to the moment they are in the care of hospital staff, people on each step of the way have a crucial role to play.
On Thursday, those at the end of the chain were given a first-hand experience in what it’s like to be a coalface as a situation is evolving.
Senior emergency registrars from Bendigo Health visited Bendigo’s SES headquarters where they were acquainted with the heavy duty hydraulic tools used to save lives.
They pulled apart the side of a Commodore to rescue a person involved in a mock accident.
There was also a dummy trapped under a car after falling from a motorbike – situations faced by SES staff on a regular basis.
Bendigo SES crew member Brett Walsh – who also works in the emergency department at Bendigo Health – said it helped to give doctors at the hospital a greater appreciation of the conditions people face in accidents.
“Often when patients arrive in the emergency department, they are already nicely packaged for waiting staff,” he said.
“It’s important to see just what situations people have been in before they arrive at the hospital.
“It also helps them to see the psychological stress of having to free a person from a crash scene.”
The group of registrars – who are usually in their second year of practical work as doctors, after completing internships – spent the first two hours discussing Code Brown emergencies.
Described as “external emergencies”, they can involve large numbers of casualties and require hospitals to dispatch doctors to the scene.
They also draw staff from further afield, with Bendigo doctors potentially having to travel to Ballarat or other areas to assist in a disaster.
Train derailments are among the most common causes of a Code Brown emergency, but staff in Bendigo have not experienced the level in a number of years.
The Black Saturday bushfires elicited a Code Brown emergency response.
Mr Walsh said it was important for everyone involved in the disaster management process to have an intimate understanding of each other’s roles.
“If there’s a disaster in Bendigo, it helps to show why it can take so long to get patients from the incident to the hospital,” he said.
“They can also see how delicate and difficult it is to get a person out of a car.”