By PM Polly

That document that we have to write in a hurry. Once it’s done we spend a ‘bit’ of time refreshing it and we spend a ‘lot’ of time hoping that it’ll never need to leave the safety of the ‘business continuity’ file.

How your BC plan?!

In 2012 my previous practice flooded, we remained closed downstairs for 10 months, staff cars were written off and the surgery suffered 100,000 pounds of damage. Having joined that surgery for just 10 months, was I glad that I had been on ‘best behaviour’ and had not just refreshed my business continuity plan but updated it and had combed each letter making sure it was workable.

Scroll forward six years, new practice, new job, co-managing. Business continuity planning hasn’t been the top priority on my list. I mean, I’ve only been there four months, nothing was going to go wrong in six months, was it?!

So on Friday when the fire alarms went off, I wasn’t concerned. False alarm, surely, I thought to myself as I pushed the black office chair back and walked calmly from my office down towards reception.

As I walked down the stairs I did start to think that perhaps I should have asked where the actual fire alarm panel was, during my induction. The alarm was pounding in my head and I followed it along with a few other members of the reception team who had that ‘what are you going to do’ look on their face, one being the designated fire person. We managed to turn the alarms off, by now all of the doctors were out of their rooms and all of the patients who had booked their ‘emergency’ appointments were also standing around, all looking at me.

Should we evacuate, one receptionist said.

Evacuate? I thought. Evacuate? It’s a false alarm isn’t it?!

It was at this point I could smell ‘something’. Something hot.

OK let’s evacuate I said. Everyone left the building apart from myself and designated fire person. We carefully checked all the rooms. I felt like someone from ‘Backdraft’ as I carefully checked the doors for heat and opened them slowly. Nothing.

I returned downstairs and the smell was still there, a hot smell, a melting smell.

What about the boiler room? Someone asked.

In my head I was thinking, what ******* boiler room?!

Outwardly I said calmly, yes – let’s look at the boiler room and hoped someone would want to come out with me to it, so that I could follow them to find it.

I took a couple of steps towards the boiler room. Most of the patients were outside the boiler room which opens on to our car park and it was very clear to me standing within a few feet of the boiler room that it was extremely hot and that there was no way I was going to be opening that door.

I then had to move the patients from outside the boiler room to the other side of the car park. There were groans.

Upon realising there was an actual issue (the whole process to here took about four minutes!) we phoned 999 and the rest, as they say, is history. The boiler was about to explode but due to their expertise it didn’t and we all walked happily back into the surgery 45 minutes later.

During the time patients were evacuated, they were heard to be asking GPs to sign their prescriptions and trying to get a mini consultation. In the car park. With two fire engines in it. Forty five minutes later when the GPs returned to their ‘emergency list’ of patients who had demanded to see them that day due to an ‘urgent’ issue, almost all of the patients had left to go home.

It could be very tempting indeed to set those fire alarms off next Friday afternoon! However, it’ll probably make more sense to actually look at our business continuity plan, update it and cross fingers and toes that it’ll be at least another six years until we need it again.

How’s yours?!

By PM Polly

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PLUS members can download a ‘Business Continuity Plan’ here.

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