Putting your incident management plan into action
If you already have an internal incident management (IM) plan covering product quality/safety issues, put it into action. If there is no pre-existing IM plan, establish one as a matter of urgency. The plan should set out:
- procedures for preliminary assessment to establish whether a trigger incident has occurred
- key emergency actions (including any regulatory requirements)
- internal response procedures (linked to quality control policies and/or production review systems)
- appropriate external communications strategy (see Media relations)
- names and emergency contact details for key individuals in the IM team (see Establish an incident management team)
Review and implement any initial actions (eg ensure key individuals within management are aware of the incident).
Consider whether people "on the ground" know what to do (and what not to do) in line with the IM plan.
