Exercise Trillium Cura Post-Exercise Report
December 12/2024
Exercise Trillium Cura Lay Summary
Exercise Trillium Cura was a preparedness exercise that simulated the challenge of managing the high and sustained flow of casualties who could be brought back to Ontario for treatment and recovery in the event of a conflict or war. Preparedness exercises help identify ways to perform better during a crisis and build relationships between the leaders who will need to work together to launch and sustain an effective health system response. Trillium Cura brought partners from the academic, health system, and public sectors together with members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and other experts to explore strategies on how to better prepare for this flow of wounded individuals, while ensuring ongoing access to healthcare for the rest of the population of Ontario. In this way, Trillium Cura was an exercise aimed at enhancing preparedness for large-scale health emergencies.
Participants reported that following the exercise they better understood how to respond to a sustained mass-casualty situation like the one presented in Exercise Trillium Cura, the stakeholders with whom they would need to work, and underscored the importance of having a clear understanding of their organization’s role, and the roles of others, in this type of emergency. Exercise Trillium Cura helped identify ways to improve leadership and organization of care in case of a crisis; options for improving the efficiency and quality of health services; the importance of making plans to increase the number of people working together in the health system; planning for key resources like skin, blood and blood products, rehabilitation and mental health resources; and options for using new technologies and improving our ability to share information across partners. Although Trillium Cura focused on managing wartime casualties, the recommendations in this report could enhance preparedness for many types of emergencies that could challenge our health system. Exercises like Trillium Cura are a valuable part of planning for crises and participants emphasized that the exercise be repeated on a regular basis and expanded to include other jurisdictions.
Read the full report below.
Exercise Trillium Cura Report_0912