The Department of Health has issued a detailed national framework for responding to an influenza pandemic.
The document sets out plans for a national response together with estimates of the effect on hospital admissions and demands on the NHS. Guidance has also been produced for a number of other organisations including acute hospitals.
Plans for a pandemic are based on the potential for a sustained impact on demand which will severely reduce capacity, affecting most areas simultaneously. Units have plans in place to deal with this, including dealing with the human resource implications.
For employed medical staff, this may involve working flexibly, for example being redeployed from current duties. There are also plans in place for the potential use of non-NHS staff or retired staff or volunteers if necessary.
The GMC has issued a revised version of Good Medical Practice which will be used if necessary.
The guidance makes it clear that: “In an emergency, wherever it arises, you must offer assistance, taking account of your own safety, your competence, and the availability of other options for care. In a pandemic, this means that you may work outside your normal field of practice, either in providing care to patients with influenza, or patients with other conditions.”
Accordingly doctors will need to be prepared to be flexible and, where necessary, to work outside their normal area of expertise. While this will naturally be of concern to most doctors, the key message is that in a real emergency (including a national emergency), medical professionals will be expected to do the best that they can - and should not be criticised for doing so in difficult circumstances.
Doctors working under a contract of employment to an NHS trust will be covered by the NHS indemnity insurance scheme. Any volunteers or staff brought in from outside the NHS or from retirement will need some form of honorary contract to ensure that they benefit from this cover, and NHS units should have plans in place to allow for this.
As NHS indemnity applies only to negligence claims, MPS would advise all doctors to ensure that they have current membership of a medical defence organisation. MPS will continue to offer its full range of advice and support to members in a flu pandemic.
Tags: Swine Flu
