Emergency Planning Annual Report 2013-14
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EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 EMERGENCY PLANNING NHS SHETLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 Contents: Page no. Introduction 2 National, regional and local Inter-agency arrangements 3 Local Planning 4 Events 6 Incidents 7 Other Issues 7 Training 8 Exercises 9 Partner Exercises 9 Risk Management 9 Audit and Self-assessment 10 Abbreviations 11 Acknowledgements Thanks for help in the local response and preparedness within Public Health goes to Dr Susan Laidlaw, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, and in preparation of this Annual Report goes to Ingrid Gall, Emergency Planning & Resilience Officer, Shetland Islands Council. 1 EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 Introduction This Emergency Planning Annual Report written for NHS Shetland reports on emergency planning activity in Shetland for the year 2013 – 2014. Reporting also happens locally across agencies and to the local service via the Shetland Emergency Planning Forum. Emergency planning for health services is part of the core public health responsibilities carried out by the public health department and led by the Director of Public Health, supported by the Shetland Islands Council (SIC) Emergency Planning and Resilience team which provides a service to both NHS Shetland and SIC through a Service Level Agreement. However, it is the responsibility of all staff and managers within the service to be prepared for emergencies, and therefore to plan, train and exercise their preparedness appropriately. This Annual Report describes the activities undertaken in the last year to support and deliver the function of emergency planning for NHS Shetland. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 create responsibilities on a number of organisations in the event of an „emergency‟. Under the 2004 Act an „emergency‟ is defined as an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the United Kingdom, the environment of a place in the UK, or war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to the security of the UK. An event or situation threatens damage to human welfare if it involves, causes or may cause: . loss of human life . human illness or injury . homelessness . damage to property . disruption of a supply of money, food, water, energy or fuel . disruption of a system of communication . disruption of facilities for transport, or . disruption of services relating to health. An event or situation threatens damage to the environment if it involves, causes or may cause: . contamination of land, water or air with biological, chemical or radioactive matter, or . disruption or destruction of plant life or animal life. Each statutory emergency service and other agencies have a responsibility to serve and protect the public. In practice, in Shetland, the local emergency plans prepare us for situations which call on responses beyond the usual capacity of our organisations. These cover the range of threats outlined in the Civil Contingencies legislation, including those posed by our remote and rural 2 EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 situation, and the island and maritime context (the DPH role includes responsibility for Port Health). The Public Health response is also governed by the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008. NHS Shetland is a Category One responder (organisations that provide vital services in an emergency), along with local authorities, police, fire service, ambulance, coastguard, environment protection and weather services. National, regional and local Inter-agency arrangements The local service has historically worked within the Highlands and Islands Strategic Coordinating Group (HISCG) to underpin our local and regional preparedness, and to link into the national structures on resilience. The formation of the Police Service of Scotland (PSoS) and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) as single national agencies, required a change to national emergency planning, response and recovery arrangements to align boundaries with the areas established by Police and Fire to support strategic management of their local activity. From 1 November 2013 three Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRP) were created in Scotland. Each RRP is comprised of Local Resilience Partnerships (LRP) which are aligned with Police, Fire and Rescue and Local Authority boundaries. Shetland is part of the Highlands and Islands LRP, (mirroring the previous Strategic Coordinating Group arrangement) which comes together with Grampian and Tayside to form the North of Scotland Regional Resilience Partnership (NSRRP). Amendments to the Civil Contingencies Act regulations to support the new arrangements were included in the Police & Fire Reform process. On island, the emergency services and other relevant partners come together within Shetland in a formal inter-agency group, the Shetland Emergency Planning Forum (SEPF) that takes collaborative responsibility for local action and the preparing and testing of local plans. This group is responsible for the local Multi-Agency Initial Response Plan (MAIRP). In 2013 it was agreed that the previous annual meeting of the group held to update stakeholders in local emergency planning activity would be held biannually. The meeting in November 2013 dealt with: Severe Weather preparedness; The debrief on the Helicopter Incident and actions / lessons learnt; Planned training and exercising; The National and Regional changes in structure and arrangements through Regional and Local Resilience Partnerships; Community Safety & Resilience Board reporting Scottish Government – guidance on: 3 EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 o Ready for Winter o Community Resilience – local work is underway with Police and Fires service visiting rural communities and engaging with Community Councils on community resilience issues o Business Resilience Shetland Emergency Planning Forum Executive meets regularly throughout the year, and in 2013-14 dealt with a range of topics including: Agreeing the training and exercising programme for the year, and planning / supporting its delivery; Review and update of emergency plans and procedures including: Updating the Board‟s Major Emergency Procedure and adding an Annex on Counter Terrorism; Planning for and de-briefing from events and incidents throughout the year including those affecting the wider Highlands and Islands Strategic Co- ordinating Group where local lessons may be learnt; Updating the Community Risk Register; Business continuity planning; Roads and winter maintenance; Government policy on Community Resilience; Emergency Helicopter Landing Site – planning for relocation with the new Anderson High School planned build; Airwave communications; Introducing the Mobile Telecommunications Privileged Access Scheme (MTPAS) locally, whereby the Police give priority to those phones when making calls during a major emergency in which the police have invoked powers to commandeer the mobile phone network; Contingency planning for the increased personnel working on the gas and oil expansion programme at Sullom Voe, including the accommodation barges; Considering the options for multi-agency accommodation across the emergency services – a piece of work still underway; A piece of work undertaken to map the coastline with regard to pollution which identified several areas of interest relating to flora, fauna, livestock etc Local Planning The Shetland Emergency Planning Forum‟s mission statement is to provide the communities of the Shetland Islands with fully integrated, cohesive, efficient, and quality civil contingencies planning, management and response services. Within NHS Shetland, resilience and civil contingencies is managed by the Director of Public Health (DPH) as Executive Lead, reporting to the Board’s Senior Management Team chaired by the Chief Executive, responsible ultimately to the Board. 4 EMERGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 As well as the multi-agency arrangements through the Shetland Emergency Planning Forum, NHS Shetland has specific surge capacity arrangements in place across the north of Scotland for Public Health functions via the North of Scotland Public Health Network, and arrangements between the north of Scotland NHS Boards for clinical and support services. These are designed to ensure co-operation and collaboration between Shetland and the other northern NHS Boards in emergency situations where local demands outstrip local capacity, and are formalised through a Mutual Aid Agreement. Key local plans for dealing with major emergencies in Shetland are listed below. These comply with national Scottish arrangements for the management of emergencies which are set out in: Preparing Scotland: Scottish Guidance on Resilience 20121, and NHS Scotland Resilience Preparing For Emergencies: Guidance for Health Boards in Scotland August 20132. Other relevant national guidance is detailed in the Shetland Joint Health Protection Plan, updated 2012 and includes: Management of Public Health Incidents Guidance on the Roles and Responsibilities of NHS led Incident Management Teams - Published October 20113 Local Plans Shetland’s Emergency Planning Forum’s Multi-Agency Initial Response Plan; NHS Shetland’s Major Emergency Procedures (updated 2014); NHS Shetland Business Continuity Plans; Shetland Public Health Incident / Outbreak Plan and the Shetland Hospital Outbreak Plan; Shetland Islands Council’s Emergency Plan. In addition, specific plans are in place to deal with specific hazards including: NHS Shetland’s