Health emergency planning : a handbook for practitioners (2nd ed)

This 2nd edition of the handbook contains a number of papers which set out practical information and best practice guidance for staff involved in all aspects of health emergency planning.

Topics covered include: an introduction to major incidents and disasters; a review of the legal framework; crisis management and organisational learning issues; hazard identification and risk management; emergency plans, including the types of plans, their structures and the planning process; plan evaluation and audit; planning exercises and training; multi-agency responses; roles and responsibilities of the Department of Health, the Health Protection Agency and the NHS, as well as relations between local and national healthcare bodies; and, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents, including decontamination, sheltering and evacuation issues.It also contains topics such as: public relations and media management; and organisational debriefing and reporting following major incidents.

This publication provides a supporting resource to the publication "The NHS Emergency Planning Guidance" (Department of Health, 2005).