Disaster simulation puts hospital’s teams to the test     

Teams from across RPA joined forces on 27 March 2025 to test the hospital’s ability to respond to a mass casualty event. 

The 2½-hour exercise simulated the impact of a train crash at Sydenham railway station on the hospital’s resources – with staff participating from a range of departments, including the Emergency Department, Operating Theatres, Intensive Care, Blood Bank and Medical Imaging. 

RPA Emergency Response Coordinator Sue McGrady said participants embraced the exercise, which was conducted under a program called the Emergo Train System.  

“There was so much willingness and engagement from all the departments,” Ms McGrady said.  

“The feedback from the clinicians who participated was, on the whole, really positive and they all got a lot out of it. 

“There is a bit of an adrenaline surge for the people involved but they also know it is an exercise and no real lives are at stake here.” 

Under the Emergo Train System, teams use whiteboards as virtual treatment spaces, with patients and staff represented by magnetic figures known as “gubers”. 

Patient gubers include data on the nature of injuries and any other symptoms, while timings are allocated to treatments and transfers to provide a realistic sense of patient flow through the hospital. 

Ms McGrady said the simulation provided a valuable opportunity to assess communication between departments, the ability of key areas to manage a patient surge and the functionality of the hospital’s Emergency Operations Centre. 

“It's really crucial to do these exercises because you always get new staff coming to it that may not have experienced anything like this,” she said. 

“At a minimum, every two to three years we should be reviewing our response plans. It really gets everybody thinking about their departments and how they can maximise capacity and their staff.”