NHS Dumfries and Galloway exercise
Exercise Arctic Monkey was held on 19 December 2007 and was attended by around 60 people from all Locality Health Partnerships (LHPs) and the health board (including the Chief Executive). The exercise was conducted as a table top exercise with serials taking teams through a range of scenarios from the onset of a pandemic through to its conclusion.
The exercise had four core objectives:
- To explore ways in which an influenza pandemic would impact on primary care and LHPs in terms of workload;
- To think about the effects of the pandemic on business continuity within LHPs;
- To look at ways in which LHPs and practices can work together to cope;
- To look at ways in which LHPs and practices can work with NHS 24 and other multi-agency emergency services.
The exercise provided a valuable vehicle for LHPs in particular to exercise a range of issues relating to local management of an influenza pandemic and also their relationship with the central management of the NHS. Participants highlighted a number of issues around business continuity planning and communication which would require further work.
NHS Western Isles exercise
Exercise Island Fortress was a multi agency exercise run by NHS Western Isles on 26 March 2008. The event was a one day 'control post' exercise testing the response of local organisations to a 'rising tide' scenario. The exercise was attended by around 57 people from different organisations including the local authority, emergency services, utilities and voluntary organisations. The scenarios brought to the fore the particular problems which would be faced by island communities.
The main aims of the exercise were to:
- Review the existing multi-agency plan;
- Assess the performance of responders with regard to communications and decision-making.
NHS Western Isles Director of Public Health Dr Sheila Scott stated:
"I would like to thank all of those who took part in this event. This was an interesting and challenging day. We identified a lot of good multi-agency working that has already taken place in planning for such an event, and will build on the lessons learned from this exercise in future planning."
NHS Fife
Exercise Pandemonium was held on the 16th May 2008 and attended by over 90 people from all areas and levels within NHS Fife including GP's and Community Pharmacists. The exercise was also well attended by partner agencies including Police, Local Authority (including Social Work Department), Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS24.
The exercise was introduced by NHS Fife Chief Executive George Brechin and facilitated by the NHS Fife Director of Public Health Gina Radford.
The aim of the exercise was to explore the relationships and issues that exist between the various elements of NHS Fife and its partner organisations and how these relationships can be strengthened and developed over the course of a developing Pandemic Flu scenario.
The exercise was focussed on pandemic phases 5 & 6, UK alert levels 1-4 and consisted of 5 serials with questions tailored to specific groups e.g. CHP's, Hospital Control Team etc. The scenario was designed to be interactive and groups were encouraged to discuss and seek advice from their colleagues with the appropriate expertise.
Feedback from the day was extremely thoughtful and positive and a number of issues, both local and national were identified.
For further information on any of these exercises, please contact Karen Fraser