Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust plan for pandemics.
The aim of the pandemic plan is to assist with the timely, resilient and integrated response to a pandemic where a pathogen appears to which most people do not have immunity. This is not a stand alone document, it supplements the trust’s existing major incident and business continuity plans by providing additional and specific information to assist preparation, response to, and recovery from a pandemic.
It is intended to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic on patients and staff by doing the following:
- reducing the spread of a pandemic
- limiting the morbidity and mortality from a pandemic
- protecting patients, staff and visitors against adverse effects where possible
- showing how the trust’s internal command and control arrangements may be organised
- showing how the trust would be expected to work with partner agencies before, during and after a pandemic to ensure collaboration and cooperation
- setting out clear actions to be performed by trust staff in the event of a pandemic
- providing added detail and context to assist with the delivery of critical services
- showing how the trust might manage changing capacity and demand for services
- showing how the trust may maximise digital technology to ensure continuity of care
- providing guidance on vaccination if and when suitable vaccines become available
- assisting a return to normality with the resumption of normal services as quickly as possible
The plan describes the actions taken by the trust in the preparation, response to, and recovery from a pandemic.
To download the policy please follow the link: Pandemic plan (staff access only) (opens in new window).
To access the equality impact assessment for this policy, please see the overarching equality impact assessment.
Appendices
Appendix A Action card for accountable emergency officer (or deputy)
Accountable to chief executive
The accountable emergency officer (or director level equivalent) will take charge of coordinating the response at each level of Alert as follows:
Detection stage
This is known by the WHO as the alert stage or stage when a new pathogen has been identified in humans. Increased vigilance and careful risk assessment, at local, national and global levels, are characteristic of this phase
Actions
- Follow guidance issued by UKHSA or NHS England.
- Liaise with head of communications to ensure all staff are aware of situation.
- Ensure each care group director has identified staff that would form a silver command that includes deputies and admin support to coordinate response.
- Advise all teams to review arrangements in team business continuity plans.
- Ensure participation in any external place based meetings chaired by commissioners.
Such business continuity planning may include:
- whether staff have dependents
- whether staff underlying health conditions that may make them more at risk from pathogen
- where staff live and how they travel to work
- whether staff are prepared to “live in” at work during the pandemic (if possible or required)
- review of essential functions and production of action cards for those functions that may be used by new or temporary staff from other services if required
- checking of business continuity arrangements of essential contractors
- review of staff skill mix to identify vulnerabilities if staff loss were to occur
- if receive any requests for information from UKHSA or NHS England or NHS South Yorkshire, ensure all teams cooperate to provide prompt response
Detection or assessment stage
The indicator for moving to the assessment stage would be the identification of the pathogen in patients in the UK.
Actions
- Follow guidance issued by UKHSA or NHS England.
- Liaise with head of communications to ensure all staff are aware of situation.
- Advise all teams to review arrangements in team business continuity plans for potential staff loss due to pandemic.
- If receive any requests for information from UKHSA or NHS England or NHS South Yorkshire ensure all teams cooperate to provide prompt response.
- Consider activating major incident plan.
- Consult Infection Prevention Control team. Ensure infection and control procedures are in place as soon as possible to reduce the spread of the infection and refresher training given to all staff.
- Confirm arrangements for investigating and managing any suspected cases for patients and staff across all teams.
- Provide local guidance about use of antivirals (if available) for early cases (liaise with partners for further details).
- Review plans for supply and distribution of essential medicines or supplies with chief pharmacist.
- Prepare arrangements for possible vaccinations of service users and staff for pandemic, for example, ordering of equipment.
- Consider need for accessing emergency PPE boxes as described above.
- If place meetings are called to discuss response to potential pandemic ensure attendance by suitable officer and ensure feedback from meeting is shared
- Ascertain if teams are taking special measures to deal with vulnerable groups if affected by pandemic.
Set up communication email address and telephone number for receiving.
Treatment and escalation stage
The indicator for moving to the treatment stage would be evidence of sustained community transmission of the pathogen, for example, cases not linked to any known or previously identified cases.
Actions
- Follow guidance issued by UKHSA or NHS England.
- Declare major Incident “implement” as per instructions in major incident plan.
- Liaise with head of communications to ensure all staff are aware of situation.
- Alert all staff and partners including NHS England via Communications team of any decision to declare critical or major incident.
- If requests for information from UKHSA or NHS England or NHS South Yorkshire ensure all teams cooperate to provide prompt response.
- Decide arrangements to provide pre-pandemic vaccination if available to front line staff as per national policy.
- If appropriate cooperate with any local media campaign coordinated via UKHSA or NHS England, liaise with partners.
- Review local sitrep reporting arrangements and decide timetable for sitrep returns from teams to complement requests from outside agencies.
- Issue reminders to all patient facing staff of infection prevention advice.
- Review arrangements for any local antiviral distribution or patient assessment.
- Ensure contractor business continuity arrangements continue to be in place.
- Support the setup of anti-viral collection points in hotspots if required.
- Support the setup of local anti-viral delivery points if required. This should be available to receive deliveries 24 hours a day and cannot rely on the current NHS supply chain.
- Consider closure of non-essential day care services to reduce risk of spreading infection.
- Teams to examine need to support contingency plans for carers.
- Teams to begin regular liaison with suppliers and contractors to ensure continuity of supply in event of staff absence.
- If local meetings are called to discuss response to potential pandemic ensure attendance by suitable officer and ensure feedback from meeting is shared appropriately.
- Monitor local health and social care response via liaison with partners.
- Monitor essential services and business continuity via situation reporting.
- Convene a recovery coordination group to facilitate move back to normal business when pandemic.
Recovery stage
The indicator for this stage would be when pandemic activity is either significantly reduced compared to the peak or when the activity is considered to be within acceptable parameters. An overview of how services’ capacities are able to meet demand will also inform this decision.
Actions
- Continue with critical or major incident procedures ensuring regular meetings of trust gold command.
- Follow guidance issued by UKHSA or NHS England.
- Ensure silver commands in each care group are aware of change of stage.
- Liaise with head of communications to ensure all staff are aware of situation.
- Monitor local health and social care response via liaison with partners.
- Monitor essential services and business continuity via situation reporting.
- Follow recovery guidance as contained in trust major incident plan.
Appendix B Example specialist subject cells for supporting gold Command
Specialist subject cell, guidance
Suggested areas of work covered
- Maintains log of all pandemic related guidance received.
- To inform gold command on the updated process for responding to national guidance in respect of the pandemic
- To provide a position statement in respect of guidance received, action taken and areas outstanding.
Suggest staffing
- Programme management office, operational business support.
Specialist subject cell, nursing and IPC
Suggested areas of work covered
Oversight of nursing practice as affected by pandemic covering the following areas:
- IPC
- staff safety
- safeguarding
- patient safety
- clinical audit
Suggest staffing
- Director of nursing and deputies, IPC team, occupational health.
Specialist subject cell, community services
Suggested areas of work covered
- To ensure adherence to government guidance, with particular reference to the guidance for community services prioritisation work in terms of service adjustments and service closure.
- Mobilising response to increasing demand for community services in line with the guidance on discharge.
- To provide specialist advice and offer assistance in addressing community nursing issues that arise in patient care for both physical and mental health and facilitate sound decision making that respects patient and staff values concerns and interests.
- To provide specialist community nursing knowledge input for other cells upon request.
Suggest staffing
- Silver level staffing from physical health, mental health and children’s services.
Specialist subject cell, workforce
Suggested areas of work covered
- Deployment of staff (including mobilisation of existing corporate and care group workforce).
- Pandemic workforce expansion (including return to practice, student registrants, bank expansion and volunteers).
- Health and wellbeing.
- Learning and training.
- Workforce data, including staff testing.
- Freedom to speak up (FTSU) with an overriding priority on communications across the trust.
- Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) matters.
Suggest staffing
- Workforce and Human Resources team.
Specialist subject cell, EPRR
Suggested areas of work covered
- Provides overview of wider EPRR matters, for example, concurrent incidents.
Suggest staffing
- EPRR manager.
Specialist subject cell, situation reporting
Suggested areas of work covered
- Provides daily updates to gold on impacts of pandemic on patients and staff.
Suggest staffing
- Health informatics and HR.
Specialist subject cell, vaccination, testing and antivirals
Suggested areas of work covered
Provides updates on:
- vaccination of staff and patients
- testing of staff and patients
- antiviral provision for staff, patients and public (where required)
Suggest staffing
- Director of nursing and deputies, IPC team, chief pharmacist, workforce and HR.
Specialist subject cell, PPE
Suggested areas of work covered
- Oversees PPE requirements of staff, ordering, delivery, storage, staff training.
Suggest staffing
- Procurement team and estates and facilities, IPC team, Safety team.
Specialist subject cell, health informatics
Suggested areas of work covered
- Information sharing requests.
- Access to systems
- Flexible working IT matters.
Suggest staffing
- Health informatics.
Specialist subject cell, ethics
Suggested areas of work covered
- Management of death guidance.
- Resuscitation guidance.
Suggest staffing
- Medical director.
Appendix C Service closure or adjustment to service delivery proforma
Appendix D Glossary of terms
| Acronym | Long form |
|---|---|
| AEO | Accountable emergency officer |
| AHVLA | Animal health and veterinary laboratory association |
| BCP | Business continuity plan |
| CBRN | Chemical biological radiological and nuclear |
| CCDC | Consultant communicable disease control |
| CE | Consultant epidemiologist |
| CGD | Care group director |
| CI | Critical infrastructure |
| COBR | Critical national infrastructure |
| CNI | Cabinet office briefing rooms |
| COMAH | Control of major accident hazards (regulations) |
| CRR | Community risk register |
| CT | Counter terrorist |
| DBTHFT | Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust |
| DHSC | Department of Health and Social Care |
| DLUHC | Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities |
| DMBC | Doncaster Metropolitan District council |
| DPH | Director of public health |
| EA | Environment agency |
| EHO | Environmental health officer |
| EMAS | East Midlands ambulance service |
| EOC | Emergency operations centre |
| EPRR | Emergency preparedness resilience and response |
| GLO | Government liaison officer |
| HART | Hazardous Area Response team |
| HAZMAT | Hazardous materials |
| HETCG | Health economy tactical coordination group |
| HPT | Health Protection team |
| ICB | Integrated care board |
| ICC | Incident control centre (control room) |
| ICU | Intensive care unit |
| ICP | Infection prevention and control |
| JCVI | Joint committee on vaccination and immunisation |
| JDM | Joint decision model |
| JESIP | Joint emergency services interoperability programme |
| LGD | Lead government department (for example, Department of Health for a Flu Pandemic) |
| LHRP | Local health resilience partnership |
| LRAG | Local risk assessment guidance |
| LRF | Local resilience forum |
| MERIT | Medical Emergency Response Incident team |
| MIP | Major incident plan |
| MIU | Minor injuries unit |
| MTFA | Marauding terrorist firearm attack |
| NEY | North East and Yorkshire |
| NHSE | NHS England |
| NPFS | National pandemic flu service |
| OCT | Outbreak Control team |
| OOH | Out of hours |
| OPEL | Operational pressures escalation levels |
| PPE | Personal protection equipment |
| RDASH | Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust |
| RVP | Rendezvous point |
| SAGE | Scientific advisory group for emergencies |
| SBAR | Situation, background, assessment and recommendation |
| SCC | Strategic Coordination Centre (set up for multi-agency SCG in a terrorist event only) |
| SCG | Strategic coordinating group |
| SITREP | Situation report |
| STAC | Scientific and technical advice cell |
| SYF&R | South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue |
| SYLRF | South Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum |
| SYP | South Yorkshire Police |
| TCG | Tactical coordinating group |
| UKHSA | UK Health Security Agency |
| WHO | World Health Organisation |
| YAS | Yorkshire Ambulance Service |
Document control
- Version: 12.
- Approved by: Business continuity and EPRR manager.
- Date approved: 10 October 2022.
- Date issued: 19 October 2022.
- Review date: September 2025.
- Target audience: All trust staff (including secondees, students and volunteers).
- Description of change: It is the duty of all plan holders to inform the business continuity and EPRR manager of any information concerning changes which will consequently impact upon this plan.
Page last reviewed: May 16, 2024
Next review due: May 16, 2025