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To prepare Singapore for the threat of a flu
pandemic, a multi-agency exercise, codenamed SPARROWHAWK II, will be
held from 21-22 Jul 06. |
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Led by the Ministry of Health (MOH), the
exercise will test and fine-tune the Flu Pandemic Readiness and Response
Plan at various levels among key government agencies as well as the
public and private healthcare institutions. |
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This large scale exercise will involve over
1,000 personnel from MOH, the Ministry of Education (MOE), home-front
and related agencies such as the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS),
Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA), Maritime Port Authority (MPA)
and the People's Association. |
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In all, some 21 Home Team and Related
Agencies (RA) will be involved at the following 19 locations: |
- Changi Airport Terminal 2;
- Tuas Land Checkpoint;
- Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal;
- All 7 Restructured Hospitals (RHs);
- Lions Home for the Elderly (Toa Payoh
Rise);
- Pasir Ris and Bukit Batok Policlinic;
- 4 Parkway Shenton General Practitioner
(GP) clinics at The Atrium, Harbourfront, Comcentre and Boon Lay;
- Greenview Secondary and Yuhua Primary.
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Based on the scenario of a pandemic caused
by the Avian Influenza infection in human, the two-day emergency
exercise, which will start at 8.00 am on 21 July, simulates an
escalation of the flu pandemic in Singapore. |
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Through this joint effort, we aim to
strengthen the public health defence in the event of a possible flu
pandemic and to gear up our national surveillance, response and
operational capabilities. |
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The exercise is also an opportunity to
involve the public and make them aware of the various measures in place.
There is need for us to play our part in being personally and socially
responsible so as to keep the disease at bay and slow down its spread
should it hit Singapore. |
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The physical dry run will be based on
the management of imported cases, procedures for contact tracing,
as well as the implementation of infection control protocols at
immigration checkpoints and healthcare institutions to limit the
spread of the disease. |
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The exercise will also test our
procedures for triaging of patients, registration and temperature
screening of visitors at hospitals and polyclinics, isolation of
suspected cases, treatment and transfer of patients. |
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MOE will also be exercising its
temperature screening of students at Greenview Secondary School
and Yuhua Primary School. |
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Community involvement |
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To inject realism into the exercise,
there will be a simulated surge of flu patients at participating
polyclinics, GP clinics and the set up of Flu Clinics to manage
increased flu patients load. |
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About 500 community volunteers from
Pasir Ris CCC and South West CDC will be involved to simulate the
flu patients and close contacts at the polyclinics and air/land
checkpoints. Additional volunteers from NUS will also be
participating at the Checkpoint exercises. |
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There will also be imposition of
temperature screening regime and visitor movement restriction and
registration at the participating hospitals during the exercise.
The public will be involved so that they could experience
firsthand the impact of a pandemic. |
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The public will be informed of the flu
pandemic exercise through a series of pre-exercise announcements
and alerts by the respective healthcare institutions. The drill is
also an opportunity to remind members of the public of the need to
heed health advisories from the authorities. One such public
health advisory is that should they develop flu symptoms in a
pandemic, they should visit the nearest GP or polyclinic. |
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Foreign observers from the
Asia-Pacific region such as Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia have
also been invited to the Exercise so that we can share our
experiences and benefit from the cross-learning. |
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Conclusion |
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This exercise is part of MOH's and
related agencies' on-going efforts to sharpen our respective
operational readiness and joint-capabilities for handling a flu
pandemic. |
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We had earlier conducted "table-top"
and "live" exercises in May-June with both individual public and
private hospitals to fine tune their response plans. |
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This physical drill is a follow up to
test and iron out any coordination kinks amongst a larger group of
related agencies, which included the restructured hospitals,
polyclinics, nursing homes, private clinics, border control
agencies and other government agencies. |
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The success of the exercise depends
not only on the government agencies and the involved agencies, but
also the support rendered by the members of the public, especially
those who would be affected by the exercise. |
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We would like to seek the public's
understanding and cooperation for any inconvenience caused to them
at the various institutions during this period. |
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Based on the exercise, we will
continue to refine our Flu Pandemic Response Plan to sharpen our
response capabilities and procedures. |
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Source:
www.moh.gov.sg Press Release
17 Jul 2006 |
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FrontPage Edition: Tue 18 July 2006
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