The NHS needs to be able to plan for, respond to and recover from a wide range of incidents, emergencies or disruptive challenges that could impact on health or patient care. This plan sets out the NHS England national response to an incident.

This annex to the Incident Response Plan (National) describes the arrangements that may be put in place nationally following a declaration of a protracted incident. It should be read in conjunction with the Incident Response Plan (National) and associated standard operating procedures (SOPs).