Exercise Cruickshank was a whole-of-government influenza pandemic exercise led by the Ministry of Health. The exercise was held over 5 days in May 2007.
Exercise Cruickshank was the largest exercise of its kind to be conducted. It successfully practiced the four stages of a pandemic response across more than 40 government agencies at local, regional and national levels in New Zealand.
The objectives of Exercise Cruickshank were to:
- practise specific aspects of the pandemic response plans set out in the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan
- exercise the intersectoral response during the four phases of a pandemic: keep it out (border management), stamp it out (cluster control), manage it (pandemic management) and recover from it (recovery).
Exercise Cruickshank had seventeen objectives, with key performance indicators for each objective. The report provides the results of each of these objectives and recommendations for action in the future.
Purpose
The aims of Exercise Cruickshank were to:
- strengthen intersectoral readiness to keep out, stamp out, manage and recover from a pandemic influenza in accordance with the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan
- identify areas for improvement in the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan.
The objectives of Exercise Cruickshank were to:
- practice specific aspects of the pandemic response plans set out in the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan
- exercise the intersectoral response during the four phases of a pandemic: keep it out (border management), stamp it out (cluster control), manage it (pandemic management) and recover from it (recovery).
The exercise covered national, regional and local responses.
Seventeen objectives were developed in consultation with the Health Sector Advisory Group and Intersectoral Advisory Group. These are set out in section 1.4. The exercise did not aim to address all aspects of the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan.