Baroness Hine yesterday published her independent report into the swine flu (h1N1) outbreak in 2009 and praised the overall response as being very satisfactory despite some £20m worth of vaccine being procured and not used.

My own experience as one of the professionals hired to manage the outbreak and later plan and execute a mass vaccinations programme for 300,000 citizens indicates that despite this high praise, there are lessons to learn – which is why I’ve carefully titled this post because I do not think the lessons will be learned – yet.

My 3 key observations:

1. The NHS had to invent a logistics chain from scratch to distribute both the vaccine (cold chain) and associated consumables (needles etc) from a central hub or hubs through to the end users (mainly nurses in primary and secondary care settings).  This despite the fact that the NHS has been running for many years and been through 5 years of supposed planning and testing in order to evidence compliance with it’s statutory responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.  The entire logistics organization o health could be and should be consolidated and streamlined (like the army, navy and air force have done in the Defence Logistics Organization (now D&ES)) which would improve efficiency and doubtless save a few £billion – really!
2. The medical profession appear to be the most undisciplined bunch I’ve come across in terms of following policy and instructions.  Every man jack of them seems to have a different opinion and they appear to instantly polarise when presented with an expert opinion on something.  This significantly undermined the take-up of vaccine within the health community as senior and relatively junior staff told anyone who would listen “I’m not having it – I don;t think it’s safe, it’s being rushed through, we don;t trust the CMO” etc.  I had one senior member of staff in charge of vaccinating an entire PCT who was pregnant with twins and fought against the jab for weeks; influencing colleagues against it by her misguided leadership – then suddenly panicked nad rolled up her sleeve when a couple of pregnant women lost their unborn babies and die.  Had this virus been more virulent her goos would have been truly cooked – of course I’m used to dealing with weaponised biological agents so maybe my decision threshold is sharper!
3. Warning and informing the public was both excellent and hopeless.  On the one hand we had the carefully crafted films and leaflets (once they finally got out) and the BBC news coverage with the excellent Fergus Walsh.  On the other hand we had utter indecision and an abject failure to TELL health professionals what they MUST do in order to protect the public.  This lack of clear leadership totally undermined the mass vaccinations programme; slowing take-up and compounding the negativity radiated by the heretical “health professionals” who put their uninformed (in most cases) opinion against the CMO and SHA advice; thereby undermining public confidence.  In the PCT that I worked the Chief Executive and Board Members consistently avoided the entire subject of pandemic – fiddling whilst Rome burned – and the Consultant in charge of infection control dithered and faffed about ordering hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of equipment and storing it instead of issuing it!  Again, had this been a more virulent outbreak, thousands would have lost their lives through their inaction.

In summary, the headlines of the report do not due justice to the reality that there is much work still to do in health before it can proclaim itself agile to opportunities and resilient to disruption.  Hopefully, some of the lessons identified might transfer into good practice – butI’m not so sure.

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Veterus Business Continuity Consultants have been intimately involved in government level business continuity planning for swine flu (and bird flu) for several years including planning and conducting mass vaccinations and helping large organisations to write, train and exercise their swine flu business continuity plans.

Workplace Vaccination against Swine Flu

We know from the Health Protection Agency’s surveillance that more cases of seasonal flu and influenza-like illnesses are presenting to both GP surgeries and hospital A&E departments and that predictions are for very significant demand on hospital services in the early part of 2010 which means you should expect higher than normal levels of sickness absence and extended periods of illness amongst staff.

With phase 1 of the swine flu vaccination programme well underway in most parts of the UK, Primary Care Trusts and their contracted GPs are beginning to vaccinate patients in the second group identified by the Department for Health as Priority 2.  This group includes schoolchildren under 5 years of age and in most cases parents will wish (or need) to be present when these immunisations take place.  Again this could lead to workplace disruption as parents are forced to juggle their home and work commitments to fit with scheduled appointments.

Whilst the numbers of new cases of swine flu are dropping in USA and UK, elsewhere in the world cases continue to increase and vaccine supply is extremely limited for both local people and visitors.  If you are sending staff abroad you may wish to encourage them to get their vaccination (if eligible) before they travel to minimise the risk of occupationally acquired infections for which you may be liable.

Whilst the virus is in circulation (and it always will be now) there remains the possibility of mutation and mixing with other viruses to create a more harmful but equally transmissable bug which could affect the lungs or any other major organ of the body.

So what should you do as a business owner or employee?

Well the same mitigations apply as before.  Excellent workplace hygiene will limit the spread of any virus and is in any case good business practice – you don’t want to shake hands with someone that just coughed into theirs do you?

As well as good hygiene, make sure your business continuity plans for denial of staff are kept up to date to reflect any changes to business processes at regular intervals – at least annually – an establish horizon scanning mechanisms to alert you of any potential causes of reduction in staff numbers, especially due to disease.  Universities should in particular, maintain high vigilance for outbreaks of meningitis.

Business continuity consultants can provide much needed help in putting together business continuity strategies and plans to prevent and mitigate swine flu and other pandemics.  These plans have high value in keeping your business operating whenever situations arise that result in loss of staff from whatever the cause.

Call Veterus Business Continuity Consultants today on 08456 434 775 for a free consultation.

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For more information on SwineFlu go here.

As supplies of vaccine continue to increase and more priority patients are scheduled to recieve their vaccinations against SwineFlu you may be wondering whether you or your loved ones should #GetTheJab. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulation Agency (MHRA) are the source for accurate medical information relating to the #SwineFluJab. You can find a wealth of information for clinicians and members of the public here.