Mock chemical spill allows Oakville hospital to test emergency preparedness

Being prepared for any emergency situation is a must for Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) and surrounding health centres in Milton and Halton Hills.

Especially when it’s responding to a disaster such as a truck transporting Anhydrous Ammonia losing control and releasing the chemical into the air near Dorval Dr. and Speers Rd. in Oakville.

Fortunately, the Code Orange was just a mock emergency preparedness exercise used to practice the emergency response to a disaster in the community.

The Halton Healthcare exercise, done in partnership with Halton Region, the Oakville Fire Department, Halton Regional Police, Halton Region Paramedic Services, and the Town of Oakville, began at 9:30 a.m. after the hypothetical truck lost control.

More than 75 mock patients were transported to emergency at OTMH, resulting in the hospital declaring a mock Code Orange CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) stage 3.

The mock emergency exercise gave participants a “valuable hands-on experiencing in managing a crisis” and by simulating a realistic scenario allowed first responders to test their emergency response plans.

“Exercises like this enable us to test our protocols, identify areas for improvement and ultimately strengthen our ability to ensure we are well prepared to care for our community in the event of a disaster,” said Melissa Farrell, President & CEO, Halton Healthcare. “Effective communication is critical in emergencies, so it was a great opportunity to work with our external partners on a complete response.”

The exercise was conducted separately to ensure that real patient care was not affected in any way.

“Anhydrous Ammonia is a toxic gas or liquid that, when concentrated, is corrosive to tissues upon contact,” said Paul Boissonneault, Oakville Fire Department Fire Chief. “Oakville Fire was able to simulate a mock response with our specialty trained Hazardous Materials team and Command officers.

Greg Sage, Region of Halton Chief of Paramedic Services, said it’s extremely valuable for them to participate in exercises like the one conducted on Thursday.

“It allows us to collaborate with our emergency services partners, OTMH, the Town of Oakville and our colleagues at Halton Region,” said Sage. “These exercises also allow us to test areas like inter-agency communication and patient transfer processes to ensure a robust response is available to the community.”