In a quarantine room at Concord Hospital in Sydney’s inner west, a high-stakes mission is underway.<\/p>\n
A returned traveller showing symptoms of the potentially deadly Ebola virus is being strapped into a bio-containment bubble on a stretcher.<\/p>\n
Before the lid is sealed, specialist paramedics and doctors check her oxygen and water supply.<\/p>\n
Her heart rate and temperature will be monitored as she is transported to Westmead Hospital to be treated for a high-risk infectious disease.<\/p>\n
Multiple agencies are involved in this delicate response to a potentially dangerous situation \u2014 but thankfully, the emergency is not real.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The bio-containment bubble at the hospital was put to good use in this practice scenario. (ABC News: Fiona Willan)<\/p>\n
Hospital tests emergency response plans<\/p>\n
Sydney Local Health District disaster manager Caren Friend said the practice run-through was a multi-agency exercise aimed at testing emergency response plans.<\/p>\n
“Firstly, to make sure we’re prepared \u2026 and our staff are current in their knowledge,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But also to make sure we’re doing the right thing \u2014 it gives us a little bit of peace of mind as well.”<\/p>\n
The exercise started when the woman walked into Concord Hospital’s emergency room on Friday morning and told the triage nurse she had fever, aches, pains and bleeding gums.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The multi-agency exercise is aimed at testing emergency response plans. (ABC News: Fiona Willan)<\/p>\n
But another detail caught the attention of the nurse.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old woman revealed she had recently returned from Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n
With a current Ebola outbreak in Africa, this information was enough to trigger the hospital’s high-risk emergency response plan.<\/p>\n
The worker quickly took steps to safeguard herself in protective gear, including a face shield.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Protective gear, including a face shield, is crucial for healthworkers dealing with potential Ebola cases. (ABC News: Fiona Willan)<\/p>\n
As a red alert was played over the loudspeaker, the patient was escorted to a quarantine room.<\/p>\n
She paused on the way to warn she was feeling nauseous, before emptying a container of rice pudding on the ground.<\/p>\n
This was another important part of the test \u2014 as the Ebola virus is spread through bodily fluids such as vomit and blood.<\/p>\n
Staff quickly moved to clean up the mess, as the woman underwent a medical assessment in isolation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The run-through helps to ensure staff are current in their knowledge of highly-infectious diseases. (ABC News: Fiona Willan)<\/p>\n
‘We must be prepared’<\/p>\n
Ms Friend said the exercise was not about testing individual performance, but to ensure response plans were effective.<\/p>\n
Communication was another key part of the response.<\/p>\n
In the hospital’s incident control room, key decision makers held talks with multiple government agencies to plan the next steps.<\/p>\n
Timothy Gray from Concord Hospital’s Infectious Diseases Department described the patient’s symptoms and travel history to paramedics and staff at the NSW Biocontainment Unit at Westmead Hospital.<\/p>\n
It was agreed she should be transferred there for treatment.<\/p>\n
Dr Gray said the timing of the exercise was important due to the current outbreak of Ebola in central Africa.<\/p>\n
“Australia hasn’t had any Ebola or Ebola-like illnesses imported yet \u2014 but cases have been imported [in the past] to America and also into Europe as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So we must be prepared for the event it occurs here.”<\/p>\n
Similar drills were held this week at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Canterbury Hospital and Balmain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a quarantine room at Concord Hospital in Sydney’s inner west, a high-stakes mission is underway. A returned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,126936,126930,126935,126925,126933,84608,126926,126927,126929,36506,137,126931,17974,126928,126934,126932,2886],"class_list":["post-204087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-balmain-hospital","tag-biocontainment-bubble","tag-canterbury-hospital","tag-concord-hospital","tag-concord-hospitals-infectious-diseases-department","tag-ebola","tag-ebola-emergency","tag-ebola-exercise","tag-ebols-virus","tag-emergency","tag-health","tag-high-risk-infectious-diseases","tag-infectious-disease","tag-quarantine-room","tag-royal-prince-alfred-hospital","tag-sydney-local-health-district","tag-westmead-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}