The reality of role play

Today I will be playing the role of ambulance commander, with colleagues from across the entire health and social care system here in Manchester. I will work alongside NHS colleagues and partner organisations as we manage the aftermath of what has been a major mass casualty incident. Thankfully, the event is fictitious but it is brilliantly designed to test every corner of our system and, although the patients are fictitious, the passion, decisions, frustrations and challenges are all very real.

This exercise actually started a few years ago and each iteration has moved us closer from the opening minutes of the incident through to our objective today: looking at an incident that's 36 hours old and understanding its impact. While we role-play our individual parts, many emotions in the room today will be real. There are a number of people participating who were actively involved in responding to the dreadful Manchester Arena terrorist attack in May 2017. As I'm sure will be the case for them and many others, the victims of that attack will be in my mind today as we discuss our incident.