Health and council leaders have more to do in order to ensure 'appropriate response' to next pandemic - report
Health and council leaders across the Midlands have more to do before they can “respond appropriately” to the next pandemic, a report reveals.
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A group of staff from councils and health bodies from across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin took part in Exercise Tangra on April 8 this year.
Now a report from one of the chiefs has revealed that despite the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is more work to do.
Simon Whitehouse, the chief executive of NHS Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, has set out some of the issues experienced during the ‘table top exercise’.
It was part of an NHS emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) programme building to a national exercise in September. He says that it was an “insightful and productive day, which reaffirmed the strength of our willingness and ability to work as partners".
But Mr Whitehouse’s report to the NHS STW board meeting on Wednesday (April 30) says there were issues over “clarity in command and control”, the “roles and responsibilities of each agency that plays a part" and “the need to have sufficient staff trained and equipped for what would be expected of them".
Mr Whitehouse’s report says that a group of 31 staff from across Shropshire took part in the exercise along with 10 other NHS ‘systems’ in the NHS Midlands Region.
He explains that the aim was to exercise the local and regional health response to pandemics and there was representation from commissioners, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, the community health trust, the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, councils and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
“It was an insightful and productive day,” says Mr Whitehouse, “which reaffirmed the strength of our willingness and ability to work as partners to tackle issues together, no matter how complex.”
On April 10, they all came together for a debrief with the UKHSA and NHS England (Midlands).
The ‘learning points’ were ‘commonly experienced’ across the region, his report revealed.
“Notably, the importance of clarity in command and control, and the roles and responsibilities of each agency that plays a part.
“Equally, the need to have sufficient staff trained and equipped for what would be expected of them.”
He adds that “organisational memory is still strong from our experience in the Covid pandemic, but there is much to be worked through to make sure we are as well placed as we can be to respond appropriately to the unforeseen".
