Exercise Winter Willow
Details of the Exercise
30 January & 19 & 20 February 2007
The Government's response to a human flu pandemic was tested in
Exercise Winter Willow.
The exercise fully tested the UK's ability to manage the effects of an
influenza pandemic by playing out the decision-making process at national,
regional and local levels, when there are widespread cases across the
country. A human flu pandemic would occur when a new flu virus, to which
people had little or no natural immunity, emerged.
The biggest exercise of its kind to study the response of the NHS, local
authorities and Government Departments to pandemic flu - it was an
excellent opportunity to evaluate the planning presumptions, policy and
operational procedures across Government and the NHS. The findings of
Exercise Winter Willow will then be fed into the overall pandemic flu
preparedness plan.
The objectives of the exercise were:
-
To familiarise Ministers and officials involved in the central response
with the policy and response issues that would arise at UK alert levels 2
- 4 of a pandemic at WHO Phase 6.
-
To familiarise key players throughout the UK with the level of
interaction between different tiers of government in such circumstances,
at both National, Regional and Local levels.
-
To simulate and analyse the impact upon the Critical National
Infrastructure and other relevant sectors such as medicine distribution,
and their influence on the delivery of the UK national response.
-
To test information flows, real-time modelling and access to timely
expert advice during a pandemic.
-
To identify gaps in our response arrangements and preparedness in order
to inform the future development of policy, plans and procedures.
-
To inform the development of future exercise activity, both within the UK
Government and more widely.
Stage 1 comprised of a national-level tabletop exercise meeting of the
Civil Contingencies Committee and Ministerial Group on Civil Contingencies,
which simulated UK alert level 2 (first UK cases) of WHO Phase 6. This was
supported by a credible and realistic scenario developed from that which
was used in Exercise Shared Goal.
Stage 2 followed up the decisions taken during Stage 1 with a full national
exercise held over two days designed to exercise the UK response at local,
regional and national levels during UK alert level 4 (widespread cases) of
WHO Phase 6. The Civil Contingencies Committee (Officials) and Civil
Contingencies Committee and Ministerial Group on Civil Contingencies met on
both days.
Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, said of the
exercise:
"When a 'flu pandemic hits the country the top priority for the
Government is to protect the public. The World Health Organization has said
that the UK is at the forefront of preparations internationally, but it is
always necessary to test our responses and improve them where required.
This exercise is another part of the continual testing, refining, and
developing of our plans.
"The NHS is ready to implement its well-rehearsed plan."
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