Trust Board Committee Meeting: Wednesday 10th September 2014
TB2014.103
Title
Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response –
Annual Report
Status
For approval.
History
This is an annual report to the Board.
Board Lead(s)
Paul Brennan, Director of Clinical Services
Key purpose
Strategy
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
Assurance
Policy
Performance
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Executive Summary
1. This paper provides a report to the Board on the Trust’s preparedness for
emergencies.
2. It discusses the planning progress over the past year, looks at the training and
exercising programme, and gives a summary of instances in which the Trust has had
to respond to extraordinary circumstances.
3. Recommendation
The Board is asked to accept and endorse this report and approve the revised EPRR
Policies.
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
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Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response – Annual Report June 2014
1.
Introduction
1.1. This paper provides a report on the Trust’s emergency preparedness in order to
meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the NHS
Commissioning Board Emergency Preparedness Framework 2013.
1.2. The Trust has a mature suite of plans to deal with Major Incidents and Business
Continuity issues. These conform to the CCA (2004) and current NHS-wide
guidance. All plans have been developed in consultation with regional
stakeholders to ensure cohesion with their plans.
1.3. The paper reports on the training and exercising programme and details the
developments of the emergency planning arrangements and plans. The report
gives a summary of instances in which the Trust has had to respond to
extraordinary circumstances.
2.
Background
2.1. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 outlines a single framework for civil protection
in the United Kingdom. Part 1 of the Act establishes a clear set of roles and
responsibilities for those involved in emergency preparedness and response at
the local level. As a category one responder, the Trust is subject to the following
civil protection duties:
• assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency
planning
• put in place emergency plans
• put in place business continuity management arrangements
• put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about
civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and
advise the public in the event of an emergency
• share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination
• cooperate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and
efficiency
3.
Risk Assessment
3.1. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places a legal duty on responders to
undertake risk assessments and publish risks in a Community Risk Register.
The purpose of the Community Risk Register is to reassure the community that
the risk of potential hazards has been assessed, and that preparation
arrangements are undertaken and response plans exist. Those risks currently
identified on the Thames Valley Community Risk Register 1 with a rating of very
high include:
•
influenza-type disease (pandemic)
•
fuel shortage
•
low temperatures and heavy snow
1
The Thames Valley LRF Community Risk Register can be accessed at:
http://www.thamesvalleylrf.org.uk/useful-links/publications/risk-register.ashx
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4.
•
storms and gales
•
flooding
•
local accident on motorways and major trunk roads
•
international disruption to the oil supply
•
foreign nuclear activity affecting the UK
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Planning Sector Reports
4.1. The following sections provide an area-by-area report on developments over
the past year and planning for next year.
5.
Major Incident Policy
5.1. This Policy details the Trust’s actions in the event of an external major incident
(e.g., an air disaster, rail crash, floods, or a terrorist attack). Such an event will
require the hospital to employ a different method of working in order to manage
the situation. The Policy is supplemented with unit-level plans (held locally) that
detail the actions required of individual units to ensure that the corporate plan is
achieved. In addition to conventional incidents, the policy details how the Trust
will manage Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (and Explosive)
incidents. The Policy plans for the management of mass casualties.
5.2. Version 8.0 of the Policy was released in August 2013.
6.
Business Continuity Management Policy
6.1. Business Continuity Management is a management process that helps to
manage the risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a
service, ensuring that the business can continue in the event of a disruption.
These risks can be from the external environment (e.g., power failures or
severe weather) or from within an organisation (e.g., systems failures or loss of
key staff). A business continuity event is any incident requiring the
implementation of special arrangements within an NHS organisation in order to
maintain or restore services. For NHS organisations, there may be a long ‘tail’
to an emergency event, e.g., loss of facilities, provision of services to patients
injured or affected in the event, etc.
6.2. The Policy is comprised of a corporate-level policy and supported by servicelevel plans. These service-level plans detail what would be required for the
service to continue; which less-critical services or functions could be suspended
and for how long in order to maintain critical services; which other services are
required for that service to function; and which services rely on that service
being operational.
6.3. Version 4.0 of the Policy was released in August 2013. The Policy aligns to
British Standard ISO22301.
6.4. Table 1 shows the Division’s progress on developing service continuity plans.
6.5. The Trust needs to undertake more training and exercising on business
continuity issues. To enable this, a series of on-line training and exercising
packs have been produced for the services.
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7.
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Hospital Evacuation Policy
7.1. This Policy details how the Trust would manage a scenario whereby it would
need to evacuate a number of patients from the premises and potentially a
whole site. The Policy was released in August 2013.
8.
Pandemic Influenza Policy
8.1. The Trust has developed a policy to manage an outbreak of pandemic
influenza. The Policy was produced in partnership with other health and social
care organisations across Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley to ensure that all
of the individual plans work collectively to manage the pandemic.
8.2. The Trust Policy was last revised in August 2013.
8.3. The prime objectives of the Policy are to save lives, reduce the need for
hospital admissions, reduce the health impact, and minimise disruption to
health and other essential services whilst maintaining business continuity and
reducing the general disruption that is likely to ensue. The Trust’s preparations
take into account a wide range of scenarios, considering a range of clinical
attack rates. The Trust has considered how the virus could affect different age
groups differently. The Policy also looks at the management of vulnerable
groups, such as homeless people.
8.4. Following consultation with key stakeholders, the decision was taken to move
the Influenza Pandemic Policy to an annexe of the Business Continuity
Management Policy. The rationale for this is that Pandemic Influenza planning
is predominantly business continuity management with some specific
operational elements.
9.
Policy Review
9.1. The Trust Board is requested to approve the following policies as part of the
annual review process. These amendments were approved by the Trust
Management Executive on 28th August. A summary of changes made to the
documents is detailed below:
Major Incident Policy
Revised throughout to ensure all data are current and that the
Policy fits the current organisational structure.
Rationalisation of appendices and movement of appendices into
“chapters”.
Business Continuity
Management Policy
Revised throughout to ensure all data are current and that the
Policy fits the current organisational structure. Inclusion of
Pandemic Influenza Plan.
Inclusion of Extreme Escalation Action Cards.
Hospital Evacuation
Policy
Revised throughout to ensure all data are current and that the
Policy fits the current organisational structure.
Influenza Pandemic
Policy
Revised throughout to ensure all data are current and that the
Policy fits the current organisational structure.
Updated in light of the NHS England Pandemic Influenza
Guidelines 2014.
Moved to BCMP as an appendix.
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9.2. Full versions of all of the above-mentioned policies can be found on the
following link:
http://ouh.oxnet.nhs.uk/EmergencyPlanning/Document%20Library/Forms/AllIte
ms.aspx?RootFolder=%2fEmergencyPlanning%2fDocument%20Library%2fDra
ft%20Policies&FolderCTID=0x010100B8D667E6D53D4008BD59E0D3C18CDF
E0002AE606AEDB29F94AA21DD6A203BF9A8A&View=%7bB91A3C86%2dC
9D8%2d41E8%2d985D%2dD44918773D05%7d
10. Audits
10.1. During 2013/14, NHS England Thames Valley sought assurance regarding the
Trust’s preparedness in relation to the core standards for EPRR. The Trust was
required to assess itself against these core standards. The outcome of this selfassessment shows that against 119 of the core standards that are applicable to
the organisation, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust:
• was fully compliant with 111 of these core standards; and
• would become fully compliant with 118 of these core standards by 31/3/14
(OUH internal review confirms compliance with 118 core standards as at
31/3/14); and
• will become fully compliant with 119 of these core standards by 31/3/15.
10.2. This self-assessment was examined and accepted by NHS England Thames
Valley in December 2013.
10.3. In November 2013, SCAS undertook an audit of the Trust’s CBRN(E)
preparedness. Whilst informal feedback to the Trust noted that the Trust was
well-prepared to manage a CBRN(E) incident, formal Trust level feedback is
awaited. This has been delayed partly due to anticipated guidelines from NHS
England. Thames Valley-wide feedback noted that further training and
exercising of plans would be of benefit, and documentation on the maintenance
of temporary decontamination structures could be improved.
11. Testing and Exercising
11.1. The Trust has a rolling programme of live, table-top and communications
exercises that are designed to test and develop our plans. The Trust is required
to hold a live test every three years, a table-top test every year, and a
communications cascade every six months. Whenever possible, the Trust
strives to ensure that our testing is held in a multi-agency context. This is to
provide familiarisation with other organisations and to assist with benchmarking
our response with our partners. Exercises provide invaluable insight into the
operationalisation of our plans and important information regarding the areas of
the plans that require further development. Table 2 details the training and
exercises undertaken from April 2013 to May 2014. In addition to these, a
rolling programme of service-level major incident and business continuity
exercises has taken place (see Table 1 for details).
11.2. Further exercises are being planned for next year. These will include two
communications cascade exercises (the first being scheduled for October 2014)
and at least one table-top exercise. It is planned that this will be a table-top
major incident exercise focused on the ED. This exercise will be held at the
Trust level and will be in addition to service-level exercising of service continuity
plans. Additionally, at the regional level, a pandemic influenza workshop and a
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table-top exercise are being planned for July and November 2014, a mass
casualties table-top exercise for October 2014, and a business continuity
exercise for the autumn of 2014.
11.3. As required by the EPRR Core Standards, all corporate-level training and
exercising is based on and referenced to the National Occupation Standards for
Civil Contingencies.
11.4. It is hoped that a national EPRR e-learning package will be made available to
the NHS in the next 12 months.
12. Live Events
12.1. During 2012/13, the OUH experienced two internal emergencies. First, in
October 2013, the JR site suffered a significant sewage pipe blockage, resulting
in flooding over a number of levels of the main building. In March 2014, there
was a failure of the Blood Transfusion IT System. Debriefs were held after the
incidents and action plans for plan development were produced. These
incidents have helped the Trust and Services to develop their plans to manage
such incidents should they occur again in the future.
13. Debriefing From Live Events and Exercises
13.1. Following live events and exercises, debriefs are undertaken in order to capture
learning points. Lessons identified from live events and exercises are
subsequently incorporated into major incident plans and business continuity
plans, and also shared with partner organisations.
14. Communications
14.1. Communication is critical in dealing with any adverse incident. As part of the
Trust’s exercise programme, a series of communications exercises was held in
the Thames Valley over the year. The exercise series, named ‘Exercise Talk
Talk’, simulated a major incident communications cascade. Table 2 details
these exercises and the learning gained from them.
15. Partnership Working
15.1. The Trust works in collaboration with a range of partner agencies through
formal standing meetings and ad hoc arrangements. Formal committees of
which the Trust is a member include the Thames Valley Local Health Resilience
Partnership and the Oxfordshire Resilience Group. The purpose of these
groups is to ensure that effective and coordinated arrangements are in place for
NHS emergency preparedness and response in accordance with national policy
and direction from NHS England – Thames Valley Area Team.
16. Summary
16.1. The past year has seen good developments in the Trust’s resilience
arrangements; however, more work is required at the service level to achieve
full resilience.
16.2. The Trust should be undertaking a more detailed and comprehensive training
and exercising programme; however, this requires resourcing.
17. Recommendations
17.1. The Board is asked to receive the annual report on Emergency Preparedness.
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
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17.2. The Board is asked to approve the revised EPRR Policies detailed in section
9.1.
Paul Brennan, Director of Clinical Services
David Smith, Emergency Planning Officer
September 2014
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Table 1 – Service Continuity Plan Status
As at 4/6/14
SCP Release Date of SCP
Status
Date
Test
31 Jul 13
29 May 13
31 Jul 13
30 Oct 12
31 Jul 13
30 Oct 12
31 Jul 13
27 Dec 12
31 Jan 13
29 Jul 13
08 May 13
21 Oct 13
28 Feb 14
30 Dec 13
20 Nov 12
11 Mar 14
18 Dec 12
04 Oct 12
31 May 14
30 Mar 14
30 Jun 13
11 Mar 14
31 Jan 14
20 Apr 14
23 Oct 13
14 Oct 13
30 Nov 13
30 Sep 13
12 Mar 13
15 Apr 13
12 Mar 13
15 Apr 13
12 Mar 13
15 Apr 13
12 Mar 13
18 Dec 13
12 Mar 13
18 Dec 13
31 May 13
17 Jan 14
10 Aug 12
13 Jul 12
28 Mar 13
09 Aug 13
21 Aug 13
07 Aug 13
27 Apr 11
12 Nov 13
19 Nov 13
31 Aug 13
21 Oct 13
20 May 14
26 Jan 10
30 Oct 12
31 Oct 12
30 Oct 12
31 Oct 12
21 Aug 13
20 Sep 12
05 Dec 13
07 Jan 14
05 Dec 13
Division
Children's & Women's
Children's & Women's
Children's & Women's
Children's & Women's
Children's & Women's
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Clinical Support Services
Corporate
Corporate
Corporate
Corporate
Corporate
Corporate
Medicine, Rehabilitation &
Medicine, Rehabilitation &
Medicine, Rehabilitation &
Medicine, Rehabilitation &
Medicine, Rehabilitation &
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Service
Gynaecology
Horton Paediatrics
JR Paediatrics
Maternity - JR and HG
Newborn Care Unit
AICU/CICU
Cellular Pathology
Clinical Biochemistry
Genetics Laboratories
Laboratory Haematology
Laboratory Immunology
Microbiology
Pain Relief
Pharmacy
Radiology CH & Breast Screening
Radiology Community
Radiology HGH
Radiology JR
Radiology West Wing
Resus Department
Sterile Services Department
Theatres and Anaesthetics JR & WW, and HG
Estates
Finance
HR
IM&T
Media and Communications
Procurement
AGM and Geratology - HG
AGM and Geratology - JR
Assistive Technology
Clinical Genetics
Clinical Immunology
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Medicine,
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
Cardiac
CTV
Dermatology
Diabetes and Endocrinology (OCDEM)
GUM and Colposcopy
Horton ED
Infectious Diseases
JR ED
Occupational Therapy
Physiotherapy
28 Nov 11
16 Jan 14
20 Sep 12
12 Dec 13
31 Mar 13
12 Dec 13
31 Mar 13
17 Jan 13
17 Jan 13
18 Apr 13
05 Dec 13
05 Dec 13
05 Dec 13
24 Oct 12
05 Dec 13
24 Oct 12
21 Oct 13
21 Oct 13
Respiratory Medicine
Community Neurology
NOC Site - Directorate Support
NOC Site - Inpatient Wards
Neurosciences
NOC Site - G4S
Orthotics
Outpatients/POAC
Prosthetics
Specialist Surgery
Theatres - Orthopaedics
Therapies - Orthopaedics
Trauma
Blood Safety and Conservation
Operational Management
Endoscopy
Haemodialysis
Medical Physics
Oncology & Haematology
Oxford Haemophilia and Thrombosis Centre
Radiotherapy
Renal, Transplant and Urology
Surgery and Gastroenterology
Theatres and Anaesthetics CH
31 Jan 14
12 Apr 12
06 Jun 13
01 Jul 13
30 Apr 14
01 May 13
05 Apr 13
15 Aug 13
27 Aug 13
15 Mar 11
01 Aug 13
30 Apr 14
05 Dec 13
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Rehabilitation &
Medicine, Rehabilitation & Cardiac
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Trauma &
Operations & Service Improvement
Operations & Service Improvement
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Surgery & Oncology
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Specialist
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
Surgery
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
31 Aug 13
08 Aug 13
30 Apr 13
14 Sep 11
26 Jul 11
27 Jul 11
26 Jul 11
21 Feb 12
09 Feb 12
17 Dec 12
30 Nov 13
27 Sep 13
26 Nov 13
15 Oct 13
23 May 13
23 May 13
15 Oct 13
26 Nov 13
23 May 13
15 Oct 13
25 Nov 12
10 Jan 13
11 Jul 12
11 Jul 12
11 Jul 12
11 Jul 12
13 Nov 12
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Table 2 – Testing and Exercising Programme 2013/14
Year
Month
Exercise
Name/Details
Type
Description
Led by
Target
audience
Debrief Summary
2013
April
Business Continuity
Exercise
Table Top
Business Continuity
Exercise
EPO
CTV
Positive:
Good communications structure that all were aware of.
Good centralised command and control structure.
Consideration of early escalation to supporting units.
Plan to have central command centre in place.
Good knowledge of wider-Trust response structure.
Good knowledge of fire plans.
Good understanding of the need for investigation and debrief.
Early identification of early triage and risk assessment.
Areas for Development:
Need for action cards/flash cards in plans.
Consideration of renaming plans to provide more meaningful titles.
Better signage in buildings required.
Financial implications of incident not considered.
Secondary locations for critical services need to be identified.
2013
June
Major
Incident/Business
Continuity Exercise
Table Top
Major
Incident/Business
Continuity Exercise
EPO
Media and
Communications
Review of succession planning and multitasking of staff to manage the service in a major incident.
Review and development of action cards.
ORG
ORG System Notes:
Key issue – what are critical functions – think Christmas Day.
Early SCG teleconference will be vital, especially to ensure commonality over agency messages
to the public.
Question over cross-border use by critical service users who might live out of area. Will need to
understand criteria in other areas.
TVP will be prepared for possible public order offences in queuing traffic.
Consider how Local Authorities will deal with abandoned vehicles in queues, and traffic
management problems, emergency access through queues.
Look at different ways of working (who can work at home).
Health highlighted the delicate balance of social care clients tipping into the health care system if
resources become stretched. It is harder to discharge patients if resources in the community are
missing.
Consider interdependencies for longer-term issues, especially around utility companies.
Consider the impact different types of strike would have, i.e., block day strikes, once a week
strikes, 1 per month, etc.
Although military personnel have been trained to drive, these will only be evoked on a national
scale and there are issues with filling at forecourts, which may result in increased fire risks.
Consider changing shift patterns to better fit public transport timings.
Consider letting staff report to their closest place of work (especially emergency services).
SCG to issue advice on what is “essential driving”.
EA would consider increasing security at bunkered fuel sites in anticipation of an increase in
likelihood of fuel thefts.
Consider mutual aid across borders for things like waste collections.
2013
June
Business Continuity
Exercise
Table Top
Fuel Supply Disruption
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Year
2013
2013
2013
Exercise
Name/Details
Month
July
September
October
Business Continuity
Exercise
Major
Incident/Business
Continuity
Workshop
Major
Incident/Business
Continuity Exercise
Paladin
Type
Table Top
Workshop
Table Top
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Description
Pandemic
Influenza/Business
Continuity
Regional EPRR
Workshop
Regional EPRR
Exercise
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
Led by
Children's
Services
NHS
England Thames
Valley
NHS
England Thames
Valley
Target
audience
Debrief Summary
Neonatal Unit
What went well:
Wide range of staff groups and skills represented.
Good use of individuals’ expertise.
Well-informed and directed by the scenario provided.
Made the group think in real time about decisions that would be made quickly.
Great opportunity to review the plan based around a realistic scenario.
What could have been better:
More child-specific data in scenario re: death rate, impacts on birth rates and neonatal
admissions.
Could have accessed SCPs for Pharmacy and Stores in advance as would have informed
decisions and discussion.
Gaps in Plan:
Nursing Staffing plan ok, need to ensure that Medical and Administrative plan is as robust.
Supply chain detail in plan ok – possibly more detail needed re: non-stock suppliers, not all staff
know, and currently would rely on individual knowledge – this needs to be shared.
Need to include detail re: Pharmacy – who to contact and when regarding supplies and who to
escalate concerns to.
Need to reconsider portable oxygen being available on each incubator.
All health
agencies
Regional Improvements Required:
In particular, some further work is required around the way in which communications and
community providers (particularly the DsPH and CCGs) are expected to be integrated into, and
work under, the new health structures.
Roles and responsibilities of organisations in the new structures are set out in national and
regional guidance, but there is a need to ensure that this guidance is clear and all organisations
are focused on these documents.
Due to a change of EPRR staff in some areas, it is important to ensure that the training
programmes remain in place for on-call staff and wider staff who may play a role in an incident
response.
Guidance needs to be further developed to ensure escalation systems and terminology is
consistent across the region.
Closer working with local authorities, CCGs and private providers through groups such as the
Urgent Care Boards or the LHRPs was also suggested as an action that would support the
development of EPRR arrangements in the South region.
All health
agencies
LI1. How organisations link and coordinate and share information during a response needs to be
clarified by regional guidance and then consistent local arrangements should be drafted across
the region.
LI2. During a response, the role of the CCGs and LA DsPH and how they link in and work with
NHS England Area Teams and other health organisations could be made clearer.
LI3. There are training needs around EPRR and leadership in a crisis across the region, which
may be partly due to changes of EPRR and on-call staff as part of the transition in April 2013 from
the existing to the new NHS commissioning system.
LI4. The activation and engagement of primary care services during an incident need to be
clarified in many areas.
LI5. There needs to be a coordinated system of triggers for mutual aid, which currently differ
between organisations.
LI6. There needs to be a nationally-agreed process in place to enable the utilisation of staff from
other organisations or from other areas.
LI7. The process for producing coordinated messages to the public, whether from PHE or NHS
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Year
Month
Exercise
Name/Details
Type
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Description
Led by
Target
audience
Debrief Summary
England, signing these off and disseminating in a timely manner needs to be agreed.
LI8. A strategy for responding to social media needs to be decided by PHE and NHS England
communications teams.
2013
November
Exercise Talk Talk
Comms
Cascade
Communications
Cascade
SCAS
(Amb) for
region
All health
agencies
In-hours, Level 1.
OUH Debrief - No issues with incoming. Error on exercise instructions to feed message to
external organisations resulting in no contact made. Instructions amended 25/11/13.
2013
November
Major Incident
Workshop
TVP Hospital Liaison
Team/Documentation
Team Training
TVP
TVP
Educational/Training workshop.
2013
December
Urgent Care Task
Force Winter
Planning Exercise
Table Top
Winter Planning
Exercise
OCCG
Oxon Health and
Social Care
Agencies
Debrief awaited.
Table Top
Command and Control
Exercise for Harwell
(Radiation) Incident
(Level 2 - Off Site
Plan)
All Oxon Cat 1
and relevant Cat
2 Responders
Multi-agency debrief awaited.
OUH Feedback.
Good points: Internal plan worked in principle. Self presenter/worried well plan put in place by
SCG before people presented to hospital.
Areas for Improvement: Could have tested the OUH plan better with detailed patient information
(i.e., presentation condition).
2013
2013
December
December
Exercise Grey
Willow
Exercise Talk Talk
Comms
Cascade
Communications
Cascade
HPA/
Harwell
SCAS
(Amb) for
region
All health
agencies
In-hours, Level 3.
• SCAS to check all SPOCs for major incident cascade.
• All agreed that the primary call now to go to A&E red phone, with switch board as a backup.
• Major Incident cascade now agreed to be monthly so one area focused on at a time in line with
the reality of a real incident. This will be on a set date each month. Royal Berks agreed to go first
in November.
• Major Incident Cascade Flow chart to be updated following the agreement made by group at the
debrief.
• List of community providers needs to be more explicit.
• Cascade flow chart to be developed following a Major Incident declaration from acute trust.
OUH Feedback:
Further internal training is required at the ward level to ensure that all staff are aware of
procedures.
2014
March
Exercise Talk Talk
Comms
Cascade
Communications
Cascade
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
SCAS
(Amb) for
region
All health
agencies
In-hours, Level 1. (NOTE - Combined Mar and Apr Debrief)
• Automated messaging from SCAS to Wexham Park- no verification of caller possible.
• Various versions of “Exercise Talk Talk” were given as the message.
• Pager messages left with no contact numbers.
• Multiple calls made to reach the BHFT on call.
• Confusion with contacting OHT director on call.
• Multiple call backs made due to poor phone reception.
• NHS 111 On call answered as ‘NHSD EPLO’.
• Contact routes at OUH-via Ops Manager not DOC.
• Delay in OUH return call to OCCG.
• Delays in contact as a result of pager to pager messaging.
• Area Team received calls via phone not new pager.
Page 12 of 14
Oxford University Hospitals
Year
Month
Exercise
Name/Details
Type
TBC2014.103
Description
Led by
Target
audience
Debrief Summary
OUH Feedback:
No issues to report. Contact route to Duty Exec clarified with CCG and NHS England.
2014
March
Exercise Talk Talk
Rerun
Comms
Cascade
Communications
Cascade
SCAS
(Amb) for
region
All health
agencies
In-hours, Level 1. (NOTE - Combined Mar and Apr Debrief)
• Automated messaging from SCAS to Wexham Park- no verification of caller possible.
• Various versions of “Exercise Talk Talk” were given as message.
• Pager messages left with no contact numbers.
• Multiple calls made to reach the BHFT on call.
• Confusion with contacting OHT director on call.
• Multiple call backs made due to poor phone reception.
• NHS 111 On call answered as ‘NHSD EPLO’.
• Contact routes at OUH-via Ops Manager not DOC.
• Delay in OUH return call to OCCG.
• Delays in contact as a result of pager to pager messaging.
• Area Team received calls via phone not new pager.
OUH Feedback:
No issues to report. Contact route to Duty Exec clarified with CCG and NHS England.
2014
April
Exercise Talk Talk
Comms
Cascade
Communications
Cascade
SCAS
(Amb) for
region
All health
agencies
In-hours, Level 3. (NOTE – Combined Mar and Apr Debrief)
• Automated messaging from SCAS to Wexham Park- no verification of caller possible.
• Various versions of “Exercise Talk Talk” were given as message.
• Pager messages left with no contact numbers.
• Multiple calls made to reach the BHFT on call.
• Confusion with contacting OHT director on call.
• Multiple call backs made due to poor phone reception.
• NHS 111 On call answered as ‘NHSD EPLO’.
• Contact routes at OUH-via Ops Manager not DOC.
• Delay in OUH return call to OCCG.
• Delays in contact as a result of pager to pager messaging.
• Area Team received calls via phone not new pager.
OUH Feedback:
No issues to report. Contact route to Duty Exec clarified with CCG and NHS England.
2014
May
Major Incident
Table Top
Table top
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
EPO
Media and
Communications
• The addition of Media and Communications to the Corporate Divisional Email Group was
required.
• It was identified that it would be beneficial for one member of the responding team to provide
support from home until the other team members were on site to provide continuity of service.
This needed adding to the action cards.
• The need to liaise with other health agencies re continuity of messaging needed adding to the
action card.
• A pre-written template for a media statement could be considered.
• The need to brief estates and security on media management needed adding to the action card.
• The need for internal team briefing meetings was noted as being required. This could be added
to the action card.
• Whole-team training on the use of all media feeds (internet, Twitter, etc.) was required.
• Reciprocal support agreements between the OUH Team and media teams from other health
agencies (e.g., CCG, Oxford Health, etc.) and internal teams (e.g., Charitable Funds) were noted
as being beneficial.
Page 13 of 14
Oxford University Hospitals
TB2014.103 EPRR Annual Report_June 2014 (2)
TBC2014.103
Page 14 of 14