Health department rebuts terror attack plan criticisms

The government has responded to criticisms made of the NHS, that it is unprepared should a terror attack be launched against UK.

In a critical report to the Commons yesterday, the Public Accounts Committee concluded that the NHS has "not got a proper grip on how to handle nuclear, chemical or biological terrorist threats".

However, the health department has rejected that view, saying that over the past two years the government had spent over £100 million on "improving NHS preparedness".

A health department spokesman said: "A huge amount of work has been done to improve NHS preparedness. We have provided national guidance on dealing with mass casualty incidents and how to deal with the deliberate release of a wide range of different chemical and biological agents.

"There are stockpiles of emergency equipment, vaccines, antibiotics, and antidotes, strategically placed around the country. They are accessible by the NHS 24 hours a day.

"And since the beginning of this year we have trained ambulance service teams in decontamination, run exercises to evaluate our responses and published specific plans to deal with the threat of smallpox."

The spokesperson aid that the department would consider carefully the recommendations of the report and respond in due course.

(GMcG)