MAJOR INCIDENT PLAN - NHS Cumbria

INCIDENT LOG33.3 It is especially important that a record is kept of all key Policy decisions, including thedate and time they are made, who made them and the reasons for so doing. A file holding allsuch Policy decisions in chronological order should be retained by the Chief Executive. PartB of this Plan contains templates for Incident Policy Log. All other information, includingactions and reports relating to the running of the incident should be recorded on the relevantIncident Log Sheets, also contained in Part B.33.4 The log sheets provide a single comprehensive record of NHS Cumbria actions andinvolvement in the Incident, detailing actions taken and information both sent and received. Itis not necessary that incoming information be transcribed in full onto the Log record. It issufficient that reference is made to such document on the Log using the next consecutiveunique serial number.INCIDENT RECORDING33.5 All Action Card holders must keep a record of all instructions received, actions takenand other incidents which will enable the Trust to assess the success of the emergencyresponse and provide evidence to any enquiry which may follow. The records should remainintact; no part should be destroyed, removed or erased because, no matter how trivial notesmay appear, the total content may form an important contribution in assessment of thecontinuity of response. The records should be handed on if the holder is relieved during theincident and following stand-down to be returned to the Incident Manager for safe storage andarchive.34 COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIAOVERVIEW34.1 Good public communication is vital to the successful handling of any major incident.The key communications objective must be to deliver accurate, clear and timely informationand advice to the public so they feel confident, safe and well informed.The Civil Contingencies Act gives two distinct responsibilities to Category 1 responders:• In planning, warning and informing the public of the likely risks and threats that NHSorganisations are preparing to address and examples of the types or responses planned• In responding, communications arrangements should be appropriate to the message and thekind of audiencePROCEDURE DURING A MAJOR INCIDENT34.2 The procedures for communications in a major incident include:• In a multi-agency incident, public information is co-ordinated by a Media Briefing Centre(MBC), convened by the Strategic Coordination Group at the Emergency Control Centre.NHS Cumbria Communication lead is the main channel of communication from the IncidentControl Team into the MBC.NHS CUMBRIAMAJOR INCIDENT PLAN – FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO A MAJOR INCIDENTPAGE 42 OF 46Version 3 (Dec 2008)