Meeting a... Emergency Planning Manager
Who are you: Laura Basegmezer.
Summarise your role: I have recently taken over as the Emergency Planning Manager for SASH. This means that I lead the service in ensuring the Trust has all necessary emergency planning and response arrangements in place. This involves keeping emergency and business continuity plans up to date, training staff on their responsibilities in an emergency, running exercises to validate the plans and holding debriefs following real incidents to ensure we learn from and improve our response next time.
What do you find challenging about your role: We often discover improvements to processes through incident debriefs or reviews of emergency procedures. These improvements can be challenging to implement sometimes due to financial or resourcing constraints.
What do you find rewarding: I really enjoy the training element of the job. I train all levels of staff and it is within these sessions that you can have great and honest conversations about different areas. I can find out what really works in terms of emergency procedures as opposed to what is written down because ‘that’s how it has always been done before’. I can therefore ensure the service can develop plans and procedures that truly work in the dynamic setting of an acute Trust.
What do you enjoy outside of work: I love to get in the kitchen and cook or bake. It’s how I like to unwind after work. I also love the theatre and get involved in a spot of amateur dramatics from time to time.