Emergency services perform mass casualty management exercise

Cyprus’ emergency services held a mass casualty management exercise on Monday, with the aim of ensuring their readiness for possible future emergencies.

The exercise, named Ippocratis 2023, was designed and organised by the ambulance service in collaboration with Cyprus Public Transport, with the support of the Nicosia general hospital trauma centre, the fire brigade, the police, civil defence, the MSR training centre, the Bank of Cyprus, NGO ‘Reaction’ and Frederick University.

According to Health Minister Popi Kanari, the exercise “has the sole objective of evaluating at a tactical, operational and strategic level the response, cooperation and coordination of the involved agencies and services when dealing with and managing emergencies and crises”.

The hypothetical incident on which the exercise was based was a serious road traffic incident.

“This specific exercise, but also in general the exercises at the state and transnational level, contribute to the identification and improvement of any weaknesses and deficiencies,” Kanari said.

She added that they will also contribute “to the upgrading of the level of coordination between the involved bodies in the event of an emergency, but also to the evaluation of the effectiveness and the eventual revision of the existing plans of action”.