Dear University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust,

I am conducting a study of the emergency preparedness of NHS Acute Trusts in England. I am using the emergency and disaster management module of the Hospital Safety Index checklist of the World Health Organisation. The study is part of an MSc in Crisis & Disaster Management at the University of Portsmouth.

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am writing to request the following information. This information relates to the NHS England Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) Framework in general and section 10, “Cycle of preparedness”, section 13, “Concepts of command and control” and section 14, “NHS command and control”, in particular.

Please note that the much of the information requested is only the records of the existence of committee membership, a meeting, training and responsibilities, and activities, list(s), procedures, mechanisms, arrangements and exercises and not the contents of the membership, meeting, training, responsibilities, activities, list(s), procedures, mechanisms, arrangements and exercises themselves.

Given the potentially sensitive nature of this information, I ask you to redact any exempt information instead of refusing disclosure. This would be in accordance with guidance on best practice from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you do not hold some of this information then I ask you to confirm explicitly that you do not hold it.

Coordination of emergency and disaster management activities

Hospital Emergency / Disaster Committee

Any record of the current existence of a multidepartmental and multidisciplinary committee to coordinate EPRR measures. If such a committee exists then any record of which departments and disciplines are represented on it and the date the committee most recently met.

Committee member responsibilities and training

If such a committee above exists then any record that committee members have received training for their role on the committee and any record that committee members have been assigned specific responsibilities.

Designated emergency and disaster management coordinator

Any record of the current existence of a hospital emergency / disaster management coordinator. If such a co-ordinator exists then any record of what whole time equivalent of their time is devoted to emergency and disaster management.

Preparedness programme for strengthening emergency and disaster response and recovery

Any record that activities to strengthen EPRR have been implemented in the past 12 months.

Hospital incident management system

Any record of the current existence of list(s) of key personnel roles in a hospital incident management system for the command, control and coordination in an emergency or disaster response. If such list(s) exists then any record of the existence of corresponding key personnel role action procedure documents.

Emergency Operations Centre (EOC)

Any record of the current existence of a designated Incident Coordination Centre. If such an Incident Coordination Centre exists then any record of whether it has full immediate operational capacity in an emergency.

Coordination mechanisms and cooperative arrangements with local emergency / disaster management agencies

Any record of the existence of current formal co-ordination or co-operation mechanisms or arrangements between the Trust and emergency/disaster management agencies (e.g. local authorities, police services, fire and rescue services, civil society organisations) in order to support Trust functions in time of emergency or disaster.

If such mechanisms or arrangements above exist then any record of the most recent exercise(s) to test them, including date(s) of exercise(s).

Coordination mechanisms and cooperative arrangements with the healthcare network

Any record of the existence of current formal co-ordination or co-operation mechanisms or arrangements between the Trust and other healthcare providers in order to support Trust functions in time of emergency or disaster.

If such mechanisms or arrangements above exist then any record of the most recent exercise(s) to test them, including date(s) of exercise(s).

Thank you for your assistance with this study.

Yours faithfully

Dr William Wetherell

Dear Information Governance Team

Thank you for this.

Yours faithfully

William Wetherell