The city's emergency services spent Wednesday morning staging a mock disaster scenario, and they say it would be prepared for a major catastrophe.
Known as a Code Orange, 79 actors pretended to be afflicted with minor and critical injuries, while 200 emergency responders treated their injuries.
The fake patients were sent to the Montreal General hospital and Montreal Children’s hospital over a three-hour span.
It was all part of a training exercise for the city's emergency services.
“This is the biggest simulation that Quebec is having and will be used as a means of training other hospitals across the province,” explained Richard Fahey, director of public affairsat the McGill University Health Centre.
The simulation did encounter some problems at the Montreal General.
As the hospital was dealing with a simulated disaster, a real patient was brought in in critical condition. Officials at the hospital decided to delay operations to deal with the emergency.
“It was already planned from the get-go that should critical care be needed for real patients, everything would be stopped,” said Fahey.
Despite the delay, the simulation served its purpose, said the MUHC’s Director General of Clinical Operations, Ann Lynch.
“My sense is that we did very much reach the goals that we're set for this exercise,” she said.
Montreal's emergency front line gained valuable experience, but there are areas of improvement, particularly in the area of communications.
Knowing where patients are helps the hospital properly notify concerned family members in times of crisis.
Overall, however, the city says it’s now better prepared for potential disaster.
The Dawson College and Ecole Polytechnique shootings were both considered Code Orange disasters.
