By Daisy Ayliffe - 29th March 2006
The EU’s flu pandemic simulation exercise exposed ‘confusion’ and a lack of coordination between member states, the European commission said on Thursday.
Publishing its final evaluation of last year’s influenza pandemic simulation exercise, the EU executive said communication mechanisms would need to be refined in case of a real outbreak.
Brussels carried out a two-day ‘role play’ to test pandemic preparedness plans last November.
Speaking on Thursday, health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said the EU must now focus on areas of weakness.
“The main reason to carry out such an exercise is to learn from experience what works and what doesn’t when plans on paper are applied in practice.”
“This report sets out important recommendations for the future and identifies areas of weakness in our pandemic preparedness plans where we need improvements. Work has already begun on addressing these weaknesses.”
Confusion over freedom of movement in the event of a flu pandemic was one area highlighted by the report.
“There was some confusion expressed by signatories to the Schengen Convention on issues of freedom of mobility having to be handled differently,” the report states.
It goes on to recommend that member states receive more information on the legal basis of provisions surrounding travel restrictions.
Technical problems “such as server failure” were also experienced during the two day simulation that involved national governments, EU agencies and industry players.
The evaluation report was prepared by the UK-based Health Protection Agency (HPA) who insist the exercise was a “successful event.”
“We gained a lot of experience from this. Apart from answering questions it also brought up things that needed to be thought out,” a spokesman for the HPA told reporters.
“The EU is reasonably well prepared for a future pandemic. It is certainly an awful lot more prepared than it was 18 months ago and the direction of travel is positive.”
“We are improving all the time,” a commission spokesman added. “That is not to say there is not more to be done, but in the months ahead I am sure we will improve further.”
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