The most effective antidote to avian flu is Tamiflu. It is available from Doctorcall at £50 per dose. To purchase supplies or for more information, call Peter Mills on 0844 264 0421.
Contingency planning for a pandemic
On this page we have outlined the key steps that you can take to combat a flu pandemic and make sure your organisation survives in the best shape under the circumstances.
Different companies have different circumstances and need different kinds of planning. Organisations that already have business continuity plans will find that a significant part of the work towards developing a pandemic flu contingency plan is already in place, such as identifying critical processes and perhaps enabling key employees to operate remotely from the workplace.
For those organisations with only minimal plans for managing disruptions, then the process of appointing a flu planning team is a vital first step towards fulfilling your responsibilities.
The simplest measures – awareness and information, health and hygiene – have the potential to make a significant difference by engaging with staff and raising their interest in ensuring that they, or their families, take appropriate precautions to minimise the impacts and transmission of the infection.
Planning is all about people:
Staff absence caused by illness and associated reasons, over an extended
period, will result in the failure of processes and procedures. This is
in stark contrast to most other causes of disruption for which organisations
develop continuity plans (power failures, fire and floods denying access
to buildings), which occur without warning.
The basis of planning is largely about making the most effective use of the resources available at any given time: ensuring that your ‘duty of care’ as an employer is properly exercised and that employees are fully informed about the nature of the threat and the measures they can take to protect themselves and their families.
There are 5 immediate actions that all organisations
can take:
Understand the urgency of the threat and the
importance of planning early:
How will your organisation be affected by pandemic flu? What steps are
needed to protect employees? What are other organisations doing? What
advice is available from the government? How will customers and suppliers
be affected?
Management commitment is vital:
A senior manager, preferably at executive level, must be given overall
charge of the planning. Flu affects people, not buildings or computers,
and all the impacts are the consequence of the absence of staff. The planning
will involve every department and business unit, making leadership from
the top essential.
Develop strategies:
During the period following the emergence of the pandemic, senior management
will want plans to deal with each new situation. You need strategies for
workplace hygiene; homeworking; travel restrictions; overseas; customers
and suppliers; employee communications and more.
Consider developing a medical treatment/prevention
strategy:
Many organisations have already ordered stocks of antiviral drugs as part
of a medical strategy to protect employees and even key suppliers. Doctorcall
can supply you with the most effective anti-viral drug Tamiflu and can
guide you on the necessary medical protocols.
Share experience and learn from others:
In addition to research and monitoring, your trade association may organise
a workshop or information exchange for organisations in your sector so
you can participate in events run by associations such as Survive.
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Quick Checklist:
- Learn as much as possible about the clinical and epidemiological aspects of pandemic flu; brainstorm the likely impacts with representatives of key departments from throughout the organisation
- Start with the assumption that, based on a moderate infection rate of 25%, the absence level during the peak period of infection in each workplace could be as high as 30% within any one department
- Identify the critical processes that are vital for your organisation to deliver a minimum level of service and retain the confidence of its customers
- rief executive management on pandemic flu and the strategies the organisation should adopt (to win support and secure a budget)
- Establish a flu team and ensure the plan is drafted in a way that can be utilised by your organisation’s crisis management team
- Test the plan; exercise the team
- Establish a monitoring process that will provide triggers for the plan and ensure that your organisation remains fully briefed as the unknowns surrounding the pandemic are resolved.
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