Chemical incidents: are we ready in the West Midlands? Testing the communication arrangements of on-call public health doctors.
Primary care trusts are responsible for handling major chemical hazards. This includes the testing and exercising of plans in a regular and routine manner. The Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division (Birmingham), which provides a 24-h, 365-day resource for the West Midlands region in the UK, undertook an audit to test the out-of-hours communication arrangements of public health doctors. The audit revealed that there is an urgent need to: (1) review contact details within on-call packs; (2) ensure that doctors performing on-call duties know, at the very least, the names of the primary care trusts/local authorities, county councils/other trusts in the area; and (3) ensure a failsafe method for contacting the person on call for public health.
Pooransingh
S
S
Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. shalini.pooransingh@HPA.org.uk
Kibble
A
A
Saunders
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P
D004189:Disaster Planning; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D006801:Humans; D008330:Management Audit; D010820:Physicians / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011635:Public Health Administration; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012041:Regional Medical Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom
D015386:Hazardous Substances