Health Emergencies

Public Health

Swine Flu

Swine flu is back but NHS Herefordshire (NHSH) is well prepared and has robust plans to cope, with sufficient flu vaccines in stock. With the county hospital treating five confirmed cases overall, the primary care trust is urging people in the community who are ‘at risk’ to contact their GP and get their free seasonal flu vaccine, which includes protection against swine flu (H1N1). 

NHSH advises all residents to minimise the risk of catching or spreading H1N1 flu by:

• Always covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
• Throwing away dirty tissues promptly and carefully
• Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and warm water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to your face or to other people
• Cleaning hard surfaces such as door handles, frequently using a normal cleaning product.

For more information please visit the Swine Flu page

NHSH Business Continuity Management Update

NHSH has made substantial progress with their BCM programme.

Critical services are now undertaking the second phase of the 2010/11 BCM programme by producing up-to-date risk assessments. The information collected from these assessments will inform the business continuity plan completion phase which is expected to commence in May 2011.

At present, there are a total of 40 critical functions across the organisation. It is expected that by September 2011,  a majority of these services will have produced their own robust contingency plans, ready for use during any foreseeable business disruption 

Acute Health

In recent months, the Resilience Team have had an increased involvement with the Wye Valley Trust.

Emergency Planning Working Group

A dedicated working group now is now in place at the Hereford Hospitals Trust (HHT) with the specific intention to oversee emergency planning arrangements and development across the organisation. The group is chaired by the Director of Operations and is predominantly made up of business managers and senior clinicians who would typically be involved in a major incident response. The Health Emergency Planning Officer is also present to provide expert advice and support.

Excess Deaths

Planning arrangements in Herefordshire for Excess Deaths is reaching its final stages. The WMLRF Mass Fatalities Plan and the HPS Excess Deaths Plan are to be tested on July 5th with Exercise: CHESTER. This training event will provide an opportunity to evaluate capacities and capabilities toward a mass fatality incident in Herefordshire and the wider community.

More details to follow…

Major Incident Plan

The update of the HHT Major Incident Plan now requires validation through exercise.  Exercise: KICK OFF is expected to take place on the 17th May 2011 and intends to test the coordination team using a number of different scenarios.
More details to follow…

CBRN

HHT are required to regularly train key staff in decontamination procedures as well as test specialist equipment on site, ready for use in the event of a CBRN incident. The Health Emergency Planning Officer with support from other skilled officers within the Resilience Team are currently working on a comprehensive training and exercise package to ensure key staff are confident in how to respond.

Flu Planning

HHT are in constant liaison with NHS Herefordshire and Herefordshire Council to regularly monitor the present situation relating to pandemic flu. There will be an exercise in early autumn to validate the existing arrangements.

Business Continuity Management Update

The Trust is to embark on a business continuity project which is to mirror ongoing developments being made in Herefordshire Council and NHS Herefordshire. All identified critical functions from across the three organisations will undertake a standardised process in anticipation of wide scale organisational restructure. The project will involve three specific phases with a view to developing a comprehensive service level plan on completion. Based on initial estimates, it is expected that the implementation of this project will be completed in 2012.

Animal Health

Exercise: OLD SPOT was carried out on 11th January 2011. The exercise, which is linked to National Exercise 'Old Spot', was designed to test the national response and contingency to an outbreak of an animal disease. Participation allowed Herefordshire Council to test its response as detailed in our existing plans.

"We acted well to the situation which contained a possible serious situation to a manageable area. Good examples of team working and sharing information"
Anonymous Feedback From Debrief

The Herefordshire element of the Exercise was led by Mike Higgins, Principal Animal Health and Welfare Officer, supported by Paul Dubberley, Health Emergency Planning Officer.

The exercise allowed Herefordshire Public Service (HPS) to consider the consequences and response linked to an outbreak of a outbreak of classical swine fever. Importantly, the exercise allowed members of staff from differing organisations and departments the opportunity to meet and work together, for the majority, the first time.

For all emergency planning issues relating to health, please contact Paul Dubberly, email: pdubberley@herefordshire.gov.uk  telephone: (01432) 260382