MAJOR INCIDENT PLAN - NHS Cumbria

SECTION 11. INTRODUCTION1.1 The Major Incident Plan, of which this document forms part, provides the frameworkthat defines how the NHS Cumbria Teaching PCT will respond to a Major Incident, both as aprovider of NHS primary care services and as a Category 1 Responder under the CivilContingencies Act (CCA) and NHS Emergency Guidance 2005, and associated documents1.2 NHS Cumbria Teaching PCT will achieve this aim through a response derived from:• Effective management of the incident together with coordination and monitoring of theincident from a Health Services perspective.• Effective communications through situation reporting mechanisms from and with HealthServices and other partner agencies.• Effective arrangements for the coordination and delivery of NHS resources in the courseof an incident• Effective staff training and preparedness on their Major Incident response.2. CONTEXT OF THE MAJOR INCIDENT PLAN2.1 In preparation of the Plan due recognition has been taken of the requirements underthe following documentation:• The Civil Contingencies Act 2004• The NHS Emergency Planning Guidance 2005• Public Health Core Standard C24• Department of Health document “Beyond a Major Incident”• Cumbria Resilience Forum policies.2.2 The Plan should be viewed in the context of the various National, Regional and Localplans that have been developed to respond to the wide range of potential major incidents.The Plan is generic and outlines how Cumbria PCT will respond to an emergency event. Asthese vary in nature and are unpredictable, the Plan provides a core set of principles andprocesses that can be applied to handle a range of circumstances.The objectives of this Plan are to:• Meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004• Provide a rapid response to any major incident affecting the local community and asrequested by neighbouring Trusts• Provide a rapid response to any major incident that threatens the health services, and• Provide for a rapid response to any major incident, which threatens the businesscontinuity of Primary Care Trust services2.4 In some cases NHS Cumbria may use this Major Incident Plan to deal with a situationto respond to internal events. However in many situations NHS Cumbria would be activatingNHS CUMBRIAMAJOR INCIDENT PLAN – FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO A MAJOR INCIDENTPAGE 9 OF 46Version 3 (Dec 2008)