UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care
Major Incident Plan 2014
UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care
INSTITUTE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
& HEALTH CARE
2014 Major Incident Plan
Bloomsbury and Royal Free Campuses
January 2014
Terri Charrier
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UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care
Major Incident Plan 2014
INTRODUCTION
General information on Emergency Planning at UCL can be found on the UCL website at the following link:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/emergency-planning/
The UCL Major Incident Plan can be found here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/staff/resources/#m (under M as a word document).
Any staff permanently or temporarily based in other Institutes within UCL or other institutions affiliated to UCL should follow the appropriate Major Incident or Emergency Plan for the site they are based at.
The Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care Major Incident Plan (IMIP) aims to consider the potential risks and impact involved should a major incident occur which affects the Institute, and to ensure that in the event of a major incident the Institute can manage the incident in an efficient manner to minimise disruption and recover as quickly as possible. See Appendix 1 for the checklist.
The following activities have been identified as critical to this mission:
Table 1 – Critical activities within the DSIS
Critical activity / Key internal dependencies / Key external dependencies / External influencesUG teaching / Students, staff, space and facilities such as specialised equipment / Funding, suitable students / Lack of any of the external dependencies
PG teaching
Contract research / Staff, space and facilities such as specialised equipment / Contracts
Grant supported research / Funding
Other research / Funding
Administration / Funding
Service provision to NHS Trusts / Staff, space and facilities / Funding, NHS Trust staff, space and facilities / Lack of any of the external dependencies
The DSIS MIP itself seeks to ensure that in the event of a major incident (a situation or incident, actual or potential, which significantly affects DSIS students or staff) the above critical activities are recovered as soon as possible and as such is concerned with the following potential losses.
Table 2- Potential losses
Critical activity / Potential loss / Form of loss / Impact of lossUG teaching / Long term disruption or cessation / Monetary, human and reputation / Severe
PG teaching
Contract research
Grant supported research
Other research / Monetary and reputation
Administration / Monetary / Severe
Service provision to NHS Trusts / Long term disruption or cessation / Monetary, human and reputation / Severe
Events that could give rise to the above losses are listed below with an assessment as to the likelihood of occurrence. The MIP stresses that although the likelihood of any of the following is medium or low the impact on those concerned would be severe. The overall risk is therefore high.
Table 3- Risk assessment
Risk / Likelihood / Impact / CommentFire / Low / Severe / Buildings fitted with automatic fire detection and lightning conductors. UCL has a no smoking policy which significantly reduces the incidence of smoking in buildings.
Loss of staff / Medium / Low if short term, severe if long term / Could arise from transport difficulties, police cordons, severe weather or illness.
Flood / Low / Severe / UCL is not within the flood plain of the Thames.
Terrorism on the periphery / Medium / Severe / Although major targets are in the centre of London the BT tower, Euston station, the American Church in Tottenham Court Road and the transport system are potential targets.
Building collapse / Low / Severe / Buildings built to a high standard and are maintained. Possible impact by aircraft and on the perimeter by vehicles.
INSTITUTE MAJOR INCIDENT TEAM (IMIT)
The team will consist only of essential staff able as a result of their experience, knowledge and ability, to assist with management of the incident and the recovery phase. It is anticipated that the UCL MIT will take the lead with managing a major incident. The role of the IMIT team is to work with the UCL MIT to assist with managing both the incident itself and the recovery from the effects of the incident. The UCL MIT can be contacted via the Control Centre on UCL extension 33333.
The emergency services identify three levels gold, silver and bronze where gold are the 'thinkers' dealing with strategic issues; silver are the ‘co-ordinators’ who put the plan into effect and keep gold informed, and bronze are the 'doers' taking direction from silver and keeping them informed. The IMIT is organised along similar lines (see Appendix 2)
a) Gold Level
· Professor Andrew Steptoe, Institute Director – overall strategy for dealing with the incident
· Mr Richard Marsh, Faculty Manager – Point of Contact (POC) for the UCL MIT and co-ordination of incident management
b) Silver Level
· Professor Dipak Kalra, HoRD, CHIME – Cascade to Group Leads
· Professor Richard Watt, HoRD, EPH – Cascade to Group Leads
· Dr Richard Gilson, HoRD, IPH – Cascade to Group Leads
· Professor Irwin Nazareth, HoRD, PCPH - Cascade to Group Leads
· Professor Rosalind Raine, HoRD, AHR - Cascade to Group Leads
· Professor Di Kuh, HoRD, MRC LHA Unit – Cascade to Group Leads
· Mr Richard Marsh, Institute and Research Admin Manager – research and IT issues
· Ms Terri Charrier, Institute Human Resources Lead – communicating with staff, permanent and temporary staffing issues
· Mrs Marcella Maccann, Institute Finance Lead – finance issues
· Andreas Opitz, Administrator – undergraduate and post graduate teaching issues
c) Bronze Level
· Corinne Ward, Finance Assistant
· Hitakshi Tailor, Research Administration Assistant
· Floriana Bortolotti, Human Resources Assistant
Contact details for all members of the IMIT can be found in Appendix 3. Staff will be contacted by email initially.
Due to the fact that the IMIT is spread over several sites with a number of different groups further members may be co-opted onto the IMIT as appropriate depending upon the site/groups affected by the major incident.
Mr Richard Marsh will be the initial POC for the UCL MIT and will contact the other members of the IMIT as appropriate usually by contacting Professor Steptoe initially followed by the ‘Silver Level’ members who will then contact the appropriate ‘Bronze Level’ members. In his absence, Ms Terri Charrier will deputise for this procedure.
The location where the IMIT will convene will be determined by the circumstances of the individual major incident and will ideally be on the same site where the incident occurs. If this is not possible the IMIT will meet at the nearest available site to the incident. The location of the meeting will be communicated by the POC both to the UCL MIT and to the other members of the IMIT using the cascade system above. Potential locations for each Campus are as follows:
· Bloomsbury Campus: 1-19 Torrington Place Room G3 or Mortimer Market Room 318 (3rd Floor).
· Royal Free Campus: Seminar Room (upper 3rd Floor) and Room 657 (1st Floor).
All of these locations have an adequate number of computer terminals and telephone lines for the IMIT to function effectively. If necessary ‘Bronze Level’ members may be able to work from home assuming they have Staff WTS access.
Vacations can be a particularly difficult time with staff and students away from UCL. Deputies have therefore been appointed for each ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’ team member of the IMIT (see Appendix 3. In the case of ‘Bronze’ team members each member will deputise for the others of the same speciality as appropriate.
The appointment of deputies will also ensure that there is someone who can cover during annual leave or sickness absences.
MANAGING INCIDENTS
An assessment will be made by the IMIT as soon as possible of the likely timescale for the effects of the incident, for example if a building is destroyed by fire it will be months/years before it can be replaced whilst a police cordon may only be in place for a few days.
For each of the critical activities identified by the DSIS an assessment has been made of the impact on both the DSIS and UCL in general (see Table 4 below).
Table 4 - Impact descriptors and event categorisation
Lost critical activity / Impact descriptors and event categorisationCatastrophic / High / Medium / Low
UG and PG Teaching / Unable to provide service for 1 month / Unable to provide service for 2 weeks / Unable to provide service for 1 week / Unable to provide service for 1 to 3 days
Grant supported and contract research / Unable to provide service for 1 month / Unable to provide service for 2 weeks / Unable to provide service for 1 week / Unable to provide service for 1 to 3 days
Administration / Unable to provide administration for 1 month / Unable to provide administration for 2 weeks / Unable to provide administration for 1 week / Unable to provide administration for 1 day
Service provision to NHS Trusts / Unable to provide service for 1 month / Unable to provide service for 2 weeks / Unable to provide service for 1 week / Unable to provide service for 1 day
Based on the above impact analysis the IMIT will decide, knowing the expected timescale for the effects of the incident, the appropriate action to take in any given circumstances.
There are three broad categories of incident that could affect UCL and therefore the DSIS:
· Premises, for whatever reason, are not available
· Staff are unable to get to work
· UCL is closed
1 PREMISES ARE NOT AVAILABLE
This situation could arise for a variety of reasons including, for example, fire destroying part of the premises, police cordons have been set up because of an incident peripheral to the premises, or the premises have become unsafe for some other reason. The timescale involved is variable from a few hours to potentially months.
The Major Incident Plan considers such incidents to have 4 phases:
1. The first 90 minutes.
2. The first 24 hours.
3. The first 48 hours.
4. The first 7 days.
1.1 Phase 1
The first 90 minutes
These actions will be taken irrespective of timescale for the effects of the incident.
If the incident results in damage to buildings the first priority is to ensure the safety of staff, students, visitors and any contractors on the premises at the time of the incident.
Once this is achieved consideration can be given about which essential items should be recovered from the premises and to what information is going to put out to the members of staff and students affected by the incident.
The IMIT will convene as directed above and will determine and confirm the following information:
1. A list of staff, students and visitors on the premises at the time of the incident and review immediate health and safety/first aid issues to be addressed.
2. A list of essential items to be salvaged as soon as it is safe to do so. This may be prepared in advance with items listed in priority order by location (see Appendix 4).
3. Provide up-to-date contact details to all team members (hard copies, updated quarterly, will be maintained in case systems are down).
By now the UCL MIT should have started putting out information that needs to be passed on to staff and students etc. In order to assist in the process the IMIT will need to confirm the most appropriate manner to pass this information on, depending on the systems available: i.e. by email, telephone or via websites. Once it is determined how to pass on the information one or more team members will be nominated to carry this out, using a cascade system so the information is disseminated quickly and accurately.
If the access to the premises is not available it is only necessary to consider the information which is going to be passed on to staff, students etc. and to decide how this is to be achieved. Consideration of alternate venues for the IMIT to meet should also be made.
In cases where staff or students are injured or killed staff may be called upon by the emergency services to give information as to next of kin etc. For staff such records should be kept by the Institute. The Registry keeps contact details for students.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU RELEASE INFORMATION ABOUT STAFF OR STUDENTS TO ANYONE OTHER THAN THE EMERGENCY SERVICES UNTIL YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE NEXT OF KIN HAVE BEEN INFORMED AND ONLY THEN WITH CAUTION.
SIMILARLY YOU SHOULD NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA. ALL CONTACTS WITH THE MEDIA ARE TO BE MADE BY THE PRESS OFFICE.
1.2 Phase 2
The first 24 hours
Once the likely timescale for the effects of the incident is estimated the IMIT can decide whether or not the Institute can tolerate the disruption or if there is a need to make alternative arrangements. The following assumes that the Institute cannot tolerate the timescale.
During the first 24 hours the UCL MIT will be seeking to assist the IMIT with getting the essential non-specialist functions running again. They will seek to do this by providing, where possible, space for essential administrative functions and taught courses
In order for them to do this they will need:
1. Details of essential administrative functions, the numbers involved, the equipment they need etc.
2. Details of course timetables, the numbers involved etc.
These details will be supplied by the appropriate members of the IMIT team.
The MIT WILL NOT be in a position to provide specialist research, teaching or service function space such as laboratories. Nor will the MIT be able to provide specialist equipment.
Initially consideration will be given to redeploying essential laboratory work to other, unaffected, sites within the Institute. For example if the Royal Free campus is affected laboratory space at the Bloomsbury campus could be used in an emergency. It is considered unlikely that all sites of the Institute will be affected at the same time. A list of potential sites is contained in Appendix 5. In addition any staff who are able to work either on other unaffected sites or from home via staff WTS will be advised to do this if it is appropriate for their role until further arrangements can be made.