The National Focus for Chemical Incidents
The National Focus for Chemical Incidents
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Welcome to the home page of the National Focus for Chemical Incidents, a unit jointly funded by the Department of Health and the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
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The National Focus for Chemical Incident is located at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), where it is co-housed with it's sister organisation the WHO Collaborating Centre for Chemical Incidents
The main activities are:-
To improve NHS preparedness with respect to chemical incident management.
To facilitate the response to chemical incident management and to advise the Department of Health and devolved administrations of the potential public health impact of chemical incidents.
To undertake public health surveillance of the impact of exposure to environmental chemicals.
Functions of the National Focus
1. NHS Preparedness
To highlight areas of concern with respect to NHS preparedness for chemical incidents management.
To identify training needs in this area.
To establish on a national level best possible practice, allowing a consistent and appropriate response to chemical incidents resulting in chemically contaminated casualties.
2. NHS Response
To provide a 24 hour, 365 day a year on call service, providing expert advice to the NHS, Department of Health and the devolved administrations on chemical incident management.
To liaise with other agencies, organisations and government departments, collecting, collating and interpreting data for the purposes of providing the best possible advise to government and devolved administrations.
3. Surveillance
To undertake public health surveillance of the public health impact of exposure to environmental chemicals.
It should be noted that the National Focus does not provide front-line advice and is not aimed at replacing any of the existing emergency response functions. Likewise it does not provide advice to the general public. Chemical incidents should still be dealt with using the procedures that health authorities/health boards have in place with their contracted regional service provider unit or the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH). However, the National Focus does provide an additional resource to ensure effective co-ordination, in the case of unusual or complex incidents likely to have a major impact on public health, likely to attract national media attention, or likely to span regional boundaries.
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Contact Information
Telephone
+44 (0) 29 2041 6388
FAX
+44 (0) 29 2041 6387
Postal address
The National Focus for Chemical Incidents
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
Western Avenue
CARDIFF, CF5 2YB
United Kingdom
Electronic mail
General Information: nfocus@uwic.ac.uk
Webmaster: nfocus@uwic.ac.uk
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Web Master: Sue Burke
Last modified: August 07, 2002