Context
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) are running a series of exercises to assist in revising, implementing and further developing its procedures and communication flow for communicable disease outbreak detection, investigation and response, under a framework service contract with the Health Protection Agency (HPA) from the UK.
Exercise Red Wing was the second exercise in the series and explored draft procedures for contact tracing of passengers proposed by the working group of the Health Security Committee. (Standard operating procedure for passenger tracing in a case of a potential exposure to a communicable disease occurring in a Member State of the European Union after an international flight”)
The exercise was conducted at the ECDC premises in Stockholm as a Tabletop Simulation in 2007 and was played during the hours of 0830 to 1530.
An ‘Exercise Design Team’, consisting of staff from the Emergency Response Department of the HPA, was established to design and conduct the exercise. An Exercise Planning Group (EPG) made up of staff from the Preparedness and Response Unit of the ECDC was formed to provide the Exercise Design Team with guidance for the planning and approval of the exercise documentation and conduct. The EDT and EPG met during the planning process and held regular teleconferences to discuss progress.
A meeting for ECDC staff took place two weeks before the exercise, where general information on the exercise organisation and purpose were shared.
Exercise Red Wing was evaluated against the objectives of the exercise and was supported by:
• feedback forms developed by the Exercise Design Team and completed by players, observers and evaluators during the exercise, where notes, observations and comments were registered
• a hot wash-up conducted by control staff immediately after the end of the exercise. where a representative of each group of players was invited to comment on “ What went well” and “Key issues or learning points”
• a comprehensive debrief process planned for one month after the exercise where participants had the opportunity to make comments on the draft report and considered
o views on the issues raised in the draft
o further comments and possible solutions on other issues considered relevant