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Fire service run practice exercises at Ellen Badger Hospital site

South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust are currently working with Shipston Medical Centre to develop the Ellen Badger site and re-locate the medical centre.

The development plans are progressing well but before construction work starts the Trust have been supporting Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Services to use the empty building to run practice exercises.

The fire service have run 4 training exercises at the site so far and plan to continue them into the new year. The latest one took place on the evening of Tuesday 14 December. Fire brigades crews from Stratford, Shipston on Stour and Chipping Campden took part in a simulation exercise responding to a fire within the building, with reports of a missing persons. Members of the fire service wore breathing apparatus to search the premises for dummy casualties in the dark. The exercise was an opportunity to test searching and rescue techniques, as well as movement procedures through challenging environments.

Paul Simmons, SWFT’s Fire Safety Advisor, commented on this joined up working: “I am really pleased the Trust has been able to support the fire service by facilitating this training exercise. It is very rare that hospital buildings are available for activities like this, so I am delighted we have been able to seize the opportunity and work with our partners to provide this extremely valuable training opportunity. The fire service do incredible work on a daily basis so being able to work with them has been really gratifying.”

Pete Bell, Watch Commander commented: "It's been great to be able to host this realistic training for our crews at the Ellen Badger Hospital in Shipston and we look forward to continuing this into the new year. Opportunities to train at such locations are limited but vital to help our crews maintain their skill levels when challenged with these difficult incident types / locations and we are extremely thankful to the trust and staff at the Ellen badger for being so accommodating. None of this would have happened without the excellent planning and support from our crews in Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, the Trust and Paul".

Notes to Editors:

Photo caption: Pete Bell, Watch Commander at Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service and Paul Simmons, SWFT’s Fire Safety Advisor outside Ellen Badger Hospital and the exercise taking place

For more information: Please email communications@swft.nhs.uk or call 01926 495 321 ext. 4673

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