Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR)

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust needs to plan for, and respond to, a wide range of incidents and emergencies that could affect health, patient care or the operation of the Trust.

Major incidents can range from extreme weather conditions to an infectious disease outbreak or a major transport emergency. The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) requires all ‘responding organisations’ to show they can deal with such incidents while maintaining critical services, whilst the NHS England EPRR Framework has similar requirements of NHS organisations.

This programme of work is referred to in the health community as emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR).

We work in close cooperation with a number of other partners such as the local health community, Local Authorities, and emergency services, in planning for and responding to all types of emergencies and major incidents.

In the event of a local or national emergency, the Trust aims to

  • Continue to deliver critical services
  • Support the emergency services
  • Support other NHS organisations
  • Look after casualties from the incident
  • Recover as quickly as possible and learn from the incident, (incorporating that learning into future plans), whilst
  • Ensuring the safety of our staff

In order to ensure the Trust can mount an effective response to incidents when they occur, the Trust has an effective preparedness program which includes

  • An EPRR training and exercising programme to test plans and train staff
  • On-call Managers and Executive Lead to respond to incidents
  • Plans for a variety of incident types (for example flu pandemic, mass casualties incident, systems failures, and increased demand for services)
  • Risk Assessments covering recognised community risks
  • Robust working partnerships with other agencies covering training, preparedness and response
  • Procedures in place to warn and inform the public regarding significant events

Emergency planning team

The Trust has an emergency planning team, but every member of staff plays a vital role in ensuring a professional NHS response to an incident, with each area of the Trust having a nominated lead for emergency planning.

Key Contact: Kevin Claxton, Head of EPRR

kevin.claxton@nhs.net