‘Orange Alert’ Activated: Ongole GGH Conducts Major Multi-Casualty Mock Drill
‘Orange Alert’ mock drill at Ongole GGH simulates mass casualty emergency response.
Government General Hospital (GGH) in Ongole conducted an “Orange Alert” multi‑casualty mock drill on Wednesday to test its mass‑casualty response capabilities and coordination with emergency ambulance services. The exercise simulated a road accident involving a bus and an autorickshaw, with eight persons depicted as injured, enabling staff to rehearse the hospital’s emergency protocols under realistic conditions.
The drill began when a call from the 108 ambulance service reached the Central Staff Room Medical Officer, alerting the hospital about the simulated collision. The officer immediately activated the emergency protocol and the Chief Medical Officer issued an Orange Alert across the Emergency Medicine Department, mobilising a multidisciplinary team of doctors, specialists, nursing staff, and paramedics at the casualty ward.
As two ambulances pulled into the hospital, nursing orderlies and paramedics swiftly deployed stretchers and wheelchairs to bring the “injured” patients into the emergency area. The staff followed triage procedures to prioritise cases based on severity, demonstrating how the hospital intends to manage real‑time inflows during a genuine mass‑casualty incident.
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Hospital officials highlighted that the primary objective was to ensure “not a single second is wasted” between the accident site and the treatment table. The drill emphasised close coordination between the 108 ambulance service and the hospital’s internal medical teams, including timely communication, efficient handover of patients, and rapid deployment of specialist support.
Officials said such regular mock drills are critical for strengthening emergency preparedness in public hospitals, especially in districts prone to road‑accident spikes and other mass‑casualty scenarios. The Orange Alert exercise in Ongole is part of broader efforts by Andhra Pradesh health authorities to refine disaster‑response plans and ensure that frontline medical facilities can handle large‑scale emergencies without operational breakdowns.
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