We spoke to Tina James, emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) manager as part of National Healthcare Estates and Facilities Day.
My name is Tina James, I am the emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) manager in the Safety, Compliance and Resilience (SCR) Team for Capital, Estates and Facilities Management (CEFM). I joined CUH at the end of August last year, 2023.
The NHS needs to be able to plan for and respond to a wide range of incidents and emergencies which could affect health or patient care and this work is referred to in the health service as emergency preparedness, resilience and response. This can be anything from extreme weather conditions, an infectious disease outbreak, a major transport accident, a cyber security incident or a terrorist attack or more locally, disruption or failure to our services.
I have worked in the NHS since 2009 previously in community and acute Trusts, after moving from the private sector. I started out working in administration and got involved with emergency planning when I was an Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer at my previous Trust.
During the Covid pandemic I provided admin support to the EPRR Manager and then went on to become a loggist during incidents, which I found very interesting. If anyone has the opportunity to become a loggist, I would encourage them to do so, it is extremely interesting to see how we respond to incidents and how we all work together as a team. There was only one EPRR member of staff at this time for the Trust, so they recruited to an additional EPRR officer, which I was successful in achieving.
Since joining CUH I have learnt a great deal and still have lots to learn.
My team and I have been working on an EPRR framework for CEFM staff and are just in the process of rolling this out, which includes a introduction to EPRR training module. If anyone would like this for their team, please let me know, you can email me by searching Tina James in the global address list.
I have also been engaging with all departments and services within CEFM to get an understanding of the many different roles that are undertaken and reviewing their business continuity plans with them.
CUH is by far the biggest Trust I have worked at and when I first joined I found it quite daunting and still get lost on level 1.
I have learnt that everyone has their own part to play and staff always have the care of patients at the forefront of their minds and genuinely want to help. I am proud to be part of that culture and believe that is why CUH is a great place to work.