Regular disaster training for polytech urged

Otago Polytechnic has good basic policies and procedures in place to cope with a disaster, a review carried out after last month's Christchurch earthquake has found.

But its author, human resources and student services general manager Matt Carter, has recommended the institution's critical incident team meet quarterly and practise table-top disaster scenarios twice a year to ensure they are better prepared for the real thing.

In a report to today's polytechnic council meeting, Mr Carter also recommended robust disaster plans needed to be written to manage critical incidents at the Cromwell campus or while students were on field trips.

Plans also needed to be written to maintain "critical to business" operations beyond an initial emergency or critical event, he said.

It would probably be beneficial for polytechnic staff to visit the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and the University of Canterbury "when appropriate" and speak to staff members there about their disaster planning and response to the earthquake, he said.

All staff were training as fire wardens and receiving ongoing training, Mr Carter said. The institution also had business interruption cover, except where the interruption was caused by sabotage, terrorism or cyber hacking.

In recent years, the critical incident team had practised scenarios including bird flu, swine flu and an anthrax scare. The last scenario was "Operation Cruickshank", a pandemic scenario in 2007 led by the Ministry of Health.

The team had coped with a real incident in May, a power cut, Mr Carter said.

- allison.rudd@odt.co.nz