The tents – which are kitted out with hi-tech equipment including decontamination showers – are being brought out for a practice exercise.

Staff from The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust are working with Shropshire Fire & Rescue counterparts for a ‘walk-through’ exercise which will allow them to look closely at how they would handle a major incident.

Keith Lister, the Trust’s Emergency Planning Manager, and Neil Griffiths, the fire service’s Operational Planning Manager, are jointly over-seeing the afternoon’s activity.

“This is a staff training event for information and learning,” said Mr Lister.

“We have a decontamination tent with showers and this is useful chance to walk through how we would work with the fire service in the event of a major incident which required a large-scale response.

“The kit will be put up in slow time which gives us a learning opportunity and enhances partnership working. It will also help our planning for the future.

“We held a similar exercise at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford back in March and that proved very useful. We learned a lot that day and I expect that there will be plenty we can take away from this latest exercise. Events like this mean that we will be prepared should we ever need to do it for real.”