A LIVE major incident exercise was held at a Bangor hospital on on Friday.

The event on Friday morning at Ysbyty Gwynedd was designed to test the response of staff to a major incident.

Actors and medical students, on stretchers and with bandages over fake wounds, played the part of casualties being brought into the hospital seeking help during a mock emergency scenario.

The exercise, Gwiber Goch, had taken several months to plan and prepare. It was organised by Anaesthetist Dr Mark Knights, and was supported by colleagues and staff.

The departments which took part in the exercise were teams from the Emergency Department, Theatres, Pathology, Critical Care and Radiology.

Care was taken to ensure the exercise would not interfere with routine services provided in the Emergency Department or elsewhere in the hospital.

Efforts were also made to reassure the public that the practice exercise was not a real incident.

Dr Knights said: “Major incident practice is critical to allow staff to be ready should a major incident ever occur.

“Today tested the response of staff to an urgent and constantly changing situation and it provided us with a fantastic learning opportunity.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved in the planning of this exercise and the 24 medical students who gave up their time to play the role of casualties.”