Content

Introduction

Planning for emergencies ensures that all responding organisations better communicate and co-ordinate their efforts, improving both the management at the scene and the post disaster recovery process for the people of Hampshire.

A major incident is any emergency that requires the implementation of special arrangements by one or more of the emergency services, the NHS and local authority for:

The initial treatment, rescue and transport of a large number of casualties;
The involvement either directly or indirectly of large numbers of people;
The handling of large numbers of enquiries likely to be generated both from the public and the news media, usually to the police;
The need for large-scale combined resources of two or more of the emergency services.
The mobilisation and organisation of the emergency services and supporting organisations eg, local authority "to cater for the threat of death, serious injury or homelessness to a large number of people".

Emergencies and disasters can happen at any time, from fires to flooding, from toxic leaks to explosions and from aircraft crashes to severe weather. It can mean the loss of basic services including water, electricity, gas and telephones. It is to contain and minimise these events and their effects that the emergency services and local authorities make plans for emergencies.

Contingency or emergency planning is the term for the work that the government, the emergency services, the health services and the local authorities do in preparing plans and procedures for dealing with any emergency that might affect large numbers of people. All of the relevant organisations liaise to ensure that the emergency response will be co-ordinated, and training of staff and exercises and the plans and procedures, are carried out.