Southend Hospital staff seen in hazmat suits during nuclear incident drill

Teams from the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust set up decontamination tents, triaged volunteer patients, and practised live decontamination procedures to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRNe) incidents on Thursday 2 October.

It was not a real emergency – it was part of a major training exercise to prepare for potential large-scale chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRNe) incidents.

The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals, carried out the full-scale drill as part of its annual emergency preparedness programme. Staff from the Emergency Department, alongside the Trust’s Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response team, practised how they would respond if a rare but high-risk incident ever occurred.

As part of the training, volunteer patients were triaged, stripped of contaminated clothing, and guided through a protective decontamination tent where clinicians practised the full cleaning process. Teams also tested how quickly they could assemble and dismantle the decontamination shelters, while other staff focused on one of the most vital parts of the drill – how to safely put on and remove hazmat suits without risking contamination.

The sight of hazmat suits, protective shelters and masked teams working in unison gave the hospital grounds the appearance of a film set or live emergency scene. But it was carefully staged to ensure frontline NHS staff are fully prepared to handle the unthinkable.

Jennifer Marshall, Deputy Director of Nursing at Southend Hospital, said:
“Exercises like this are a crucial part of emergency planning across the NHS. They allow clinical and operational teams to train side-by-side, in realistic conditions, and stay one step ahead.”

The training was not limited to Southend. Similar exercises took place at Basildon Hospital, with Broomfield Hospital scheduled to run its own drill in the coming weeks.

Steve Arrowsmith, Head of the Trust’s Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response Team, said:
“We do this exercise at each of our main hospital sites every year and it’s about making sure our teams are confident, capable and ready to respond to anything – no matter how unlikely it may seem.

“Our on-call commanders – the people who’d coordinate such a response if it happened in real life – walked through the entire response process in real time. This gave them valuable, hands-on insight to help build their situational awareness into how a major incident would unfold.”

Exercises like these are a mandatory part of NHS emergency planning, designed to protect both patients and staff. By running through realistic scenarios in advance, hospitals aim to be ready for the rarest but most dangerous of events – ensuring they can respond swiftly and effectively if they are ever called upon.