Emergency Preparedness
Preparing for Major Incidents
We need to be able to plan for, and respond to, a wide range of
incidents and emergencies that could affect health or patient care. These could
be anything from extreme weather conditions to an infectious disease outbreak
or a major transport accident or a terrorist act.
The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) requires NHS organisations and
providers of NHS funded care, to plan and prepare for such incidents, whilst maintaining
safe services to patients. This work is referred to in the health service as
‘emergency preparedness, resilience and response’ (EPRR). There are a set of
NHS EPRR Core Standards (issued by NHS England) , against which the Trust
declared ‘Substantial Compliance’ and an action plan developed to ensure that
the Trust became fully compliant by April 2017.
