NHS clinician in PPE looking through microscope

Pandemic preparedness plans during COVID-19

About the project

Healthcare organisations are required to have plans in place to ensure they are prepared for pandemics when they occur. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on infection prevention and control (IPC) services and has highlighted the importance of considering IPC in pandemic planning.

Man wearing mask and shield during the pandemic.

Aim of the study

This project will evaluate the response of IPC services to the pandemic across local healthcare systems in England. It will seek to understand the challenges they faced and how pandemic planning informed their response. The critical lessons identified will be used to inform the development of more effective and resilient planning for IPC services in the management of future pandemics.

We will undertake the work in two phases:

Visualisation of the Covid-19 virus

Phase 1

  • Reviewing key documents published by government bodies and key advisory groups to inform the development of a pandemic policy timeline.
  • A national survey of IPC service leaders to provide a cross-sectional assessment of the IPC services preparedness for the pandemic and the extent to which the existing pandemic plans informed their management of COVID-19.

Phase 2

  • Phase 2 will be informed by Phase 1 and will include an in-depth look at six local healthcare systems (case studies) including interviews with key informants such as chief executives, infection control directors, GPs and service users.
  • We will also collect information on, for example, numbers of infections, staff sickness and other COVID-19 relevant communications.

The results

The results will provide health and social care decision-makers (at national and local levels) with greater clarity of the role of IPC services in Pandemic Preparedness Planning (PPP) and how to ensure PPP fits the wider health and care system.

We will publicise our findings in academic journals and through professional, patient and public channels.

Impact, research team and publications

  • Impact

    This research will provide an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of pandemic plans in terms of IPC services and will inform the development of future pandemic preparedness plans. It will be of relevance to health and social care decision-makers at national policy, commissioning and delivery levels.

    It will provide:

    • greater clarity about the role, requirements and activities of IPC services in pandemic preparedness and how best to configure plans to suit system-wide contexts
    • important evidence to underpin NHS England future policies and guidance and Department of Health and Social Care oversight of emergency preparedness to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose in future outbreaks/pandemics

  • Research team members

  • Research publications

    C. Greene, J. Wilson, H. Griffin, A. Tingle, T. Cooper, M.G. Semple, D. Enoch, A. Lee, HP. Loveday, The role of pandemic planning in the management of COVID-19 in England from an infection prevention and control perspective: results of a national survey. Public Health, Volume 217, 2023, Pages 89-94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2023.01.028

Additional information

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