MAJOR INCIDENT PLAN - NHS Cumbria

the NHS within the region and advise the Department of Health accordingly. National andmedia briefing will be provided by NHS NW to ensure consistency at all levels.25 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ADVICE CELL25.1 Some incidents may require specialist / expert advice to be managed effectively.Where there is a need for public health and/or scientific advice a Scientific & Technical AdviceCell (STAC) maybe convened. If a STAC is required, the Director of Public Health/Deputy willbe required to attend the Emergency Control Centre, to provide specialist advice to theStrategic Coordination Group. Dependent on the incident, the STAC may convene at analternative site, for example, during a flooding; the STAC may meet at the EnvironmentAgency Office, Penrith.25.2 The public health professional will take on the responsibility for obtaining the relevantspecialist advice for the SCG, either locally within public health and C&L HPA resources, orregionally via the Regional Director of Public Health.26 TACTICAL LEVEL (SILVER)26.1 The Tactical level of management provides overall management of the response andwill be provided by NHS Cumbria Incident Control Room Team. Tactical managers will beresponsible for formulating the tactical plan to be adopted by the operational serviceproviders. The tactical managers will focus on overall general management; determinepriorities in allocating resources, obtain further resources as required, and plan andcoordinate when task will be undertaken. Tactical managers need to be aware of what ishappening at operational level whilst leaving the responsibility for dealing with operations tothe operational managers.26.2 The Tactical level can pass requests up to NHS Gold Commander as well asforwarding requests down to Operational teams.27 OPERATIONAL LEVEL (BRONZE)27.1 The operational level of management is concerned with the normal day-to-dayarrangements; it is the level at which ‘hands on’ work is undertaken, it provides theoperational response to an incident. They will control the resources of their respectiveservice; implement any tactical requests passed down from Tactical Level.NHS CUMBRIAMAJOR INCIDENT PLAN – FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO A MAJOR INCIDENTPAGE 37 OF 46Version 3 (Dec 2008)