MAJOR INCIDENT PLAN - NHS Cumbria

15 LEVELS OF MAJOR INCIDENTINCIDENT AFFECTING SINGLE NHS TRUST (LEVEL 1)15.1 NHS Cumbria may need to declare a major incident where its ability to maintainessential services is seriously compromised, for example:• Extreme shortage of staff through sickness, adverse weather, fuel shortage etc• An outbreak of infectious disease affecting staff/patients• A fire, flood or other incident requiring the evacuation of premises• Loss of utilities, e.g. power or water• Bomb threat, siege or hostage situation• Failure of a screening programme or medical equipment• Communication breakdownBusiness continuity plans for NHS Cumbria are currently being developed and will becomplimentary to the Major Incident Plan15.2 NHS Trusts in Cumbria will inform the NHS Gold Commander in the event that theyhave activated their Major Incident Plan. If the incident is affecting only one Trust, and can bemanaged by the individual Trust, the NHS Gold Commander may only be required to maintaina watching brief, advising C & L Health Protection Unit and NHS North West appropriately.The following figure maybe use where NHS Cumbria may need to consider declaring a MajorIncident:SERIOUS UNTOWARD INCIDENTS15.3 NHS Cumbria has an additional responsibility to report ‘serious untoward incidents’ toNHS North West (SHA) through the Strategic Executive Information System (those occurringout of hours should be reported to Regional Director of Public Health). It is also theresponsibility of the alerting Trust to notify the NHS Gold Commander of the situation.15.4 These types of incident can be defined as an accident or incident when a patient,member of staff or member of the public suffers serious injury, major permanent harm orunexpected death on hospital, or other health service premises or other premises where NHScare is provided or where actions of NHS staff are likely to cause significant public concern.Examples of the type of incidents can be found in Part B of this Plan.NHS CUMBRIAMAJOR INCIDENT PLAN – FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO A MAJOR INCIDENTPAGE 29 OF 46Version 3 (Dec 2008)