Joint emergency services training day draws in hundreds of fireys, police, nurses and paramedics

A bus crash with half a dozen people dead inside and a drug-affected criminal who has just stabbed a woman were just two of the scenarios our emergency services were preparing for at a massive training day.

Student critical care paramedic Jody Fiegert takes part in the trauma response training exercise at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Charlton Station on Thursday. Picture: Nev Madsen.

A bus driver has lost control of his vehicle on a mountainside road, violently crashing and killing several passengers.

The bus is teetering on the cliff and will fall if its weight shifts.

This scene could be the start of a great action flick, but was instead one of the scenarios played out at a joint emergency services training exercise at the Charlton Fire Station on Thursday.

Zoe Miller-Starr plays a victim during the trauma response training exercise at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Charlton Station. Picture: Nev Madsen.

It was designed to test the police, firefighters and paramedics at the scene, along with the Toowoomba Hospital staff and LifeFlight aeromedical crews who back them up.

Queensland Ambulance Service clinical support officer Jess Mcgaw helped roll out the training day and said each scenario was designed to gauge how the agencies worked as a whole.

“You don’t ever want to make a mistake on the actual job, so when we do training like this it mitigates that risk of things going wrong,” she said.

“It prepares our people.”

Matthew Bury (left) and Station Officer Greg Stewart. Crews from 318 Alpha and 318 Lima rescue casualties during the trauma response training exercise. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Included in the list of scenarios was a call out to an assault where an enraged offender had stabbed a woman and was resisting arrest.

The paramedics were tasked with treating the stabbing victim while the offender screamed abuse and fought with police – all in a confined space.

The organisers wanted to see the paramedics focus on treating their patient despite the aggression beside them.

When the stabbing victim was stable, the paramedics moved to the offender, sedating them while police officers held them to the ground.

QPS Senior Sergeant Jason Hopgood deals with an unruly man in the trauma response training exercise at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Charlton Station. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Both situations could have proven fatal – and have in the past – if not handled correctly.

“I know I am a very hands-on learner, so once we have done it in a scenario setting, it makes it much easier when you get to an incident in real life,” Ms Mcgaw said.

“You can very much feel a lot calmer, be prepared, and the outcome for the patients is better.”

In each scenario the organisers employed staff to act as patients and offenders and they were given clear directions, such as acting hysterical, unresponsive or abusive.

Again, this helped give their colleagues a fresh perspective when responding to high-risk trauma.

“I spoke to one patient who said it was absolutely terrifying to be in a car when it was being cut open,” Ms Mcgaw said.

”I give us a really good insight.

“We have tried to make it as real as possible.”