Citation

Pooransingh S, Kibble A, Saunders P. Public Health 2005; 119(1): 67-69.

Affiliation

Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. shalini.pooransingh@HPA.org.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.puhe.2003.12.009

PMID

15560904

Abstract

Primary care trusts are responsible for handling major chemical hazards. This includes the testing and exercising of plans in a regular and routine manner. The Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division (Birmingham), which provides a 24-h, 365-day resource for the West Midlands region in the UK, undertook an audit to test the out-of-hours communication arrangements of public health doctors. The audit revealed that there is an urgent need to: (1) review contact details within on-call packs; (2) ensure that doctors performing on-call duties know, at the very least, the names of the primary care trusts/local authorities, county councils/other trusts in the area; and (3) ensure a failsafe method for contacting the person on call for public health.

Language: en