Management Response and Action Plan: Evaluation of Food-borne Enteric Illness Prevention, Detection and Response Activities at PHAC
Responsible Branch: Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (lead) with Office of Public Health Practice, Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Communications Directorate
Date Evaluation Report and MRAP Presented to PHAC Evaluation Committee: March 26, 2012
Report Recommendations Recommendation as stated in the evaluation report. |
Management Response Identify whether program management agrees, agrees with conditions, or disagrees with the recommendation, and why. |
Management Action Plan Identify what action(s) program management will take to address the recommendation. |
Deliverables Identify key deliverables. |
Expected Completion Date Identify timeline for implementation of each deliverable. |
Responsibility Identify the position(s) / team(s) / division(s) responsible for implementing each deliverable. |
Accountability Identify Senior Executive (ADM level) accountable for the implementation of each deliverable |
Resources Describe the human and/or financial resources required to address recommendation, including the source of resources (additional vs. existing budget). |
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| 1. Take a more Public Health Agency-wide and interdepartmental strategic approach for food-borne enteric illness which includes, but is not limited to: | 1. Agree | 1. Development of a 5-year PHAC Strategic Plan for food safety covering CFEZID, NML, LFZ, OPHP, CEPR. Conduct strategic planning session(s) with the PHAC Food Safety Directors committee as the consultation vehicle. Consult interdepartmental Committee on Food Safety (members include PHAC, CFIA, AAFC, and Health Canada) and other relevant stakeholders on draft PHAC strategic plan for food-borne enteric illness. |
1. PHAC 5-year Strategic Plan for food safety prepared by March 31, 2013, and updated annually with first update by March 31, 2014. | March 2013 and updated annually | DG, CFEZID (lead) DG, NML DG, LFZ DG, CEPR DG, OPHP |
ADM, IDPC (lead) DG, CEPR DG, OPHP |
Existing resources |
| a) priority setting mechanisms for determining key Public Health Agency food-borne activities | a) Agree | Item (a): As part of the Strategic Plan, develop the recommended strategic approach to priority setting including, among others, the listed recommendations 1.(b) and 1.(c). | a) Criteria and mechanism for prioritising PHAC food-borne included in the Strategic Plan. | March 2013 | DG, CFEZID (lead) DG, NML DG, LFZ DG, CEPR DG, OPHP |
ADM, IDPC (lead) DG, CEPR DG, OPHP |
Existing resources |
| b) the role of upstream prevention activities and their link to the Public Health Agency’s broader food-borne activities | b) Agree | Item (b): Ensure that upstream prevention is consistent with PHAC mandate and a shared understanding exists within PHAC. As part of consultations with the interdepartmental Committee on Food Safety and other relevant stakeholders noted above, ensure partners/stakeholders are aware of upstream prevention activities and results. |
b) Include in the Strategic Plan a description of PHAC's planned upstream prevention activities, including linkages to:
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March 2013 and updated annually | DG, LFZ | ADM, IDPC | Existing resources |
| c) a mechanism for tracking ongoing food-borne enteric illness funding that reflects the horizontality of this program area | c) Agree, subject to: confining tracking to ongoing A-base expenditures and Budget 2012 food safety funding, and limiting scope of tracking to areas with significant food activity (e.g., CFEZID, NML, LFZ, CEPR, OPHP). |
Item (c): CFEZID and OCFO to consider options, consult with the Food Safety Directors Committee, and define a method for tracking ongoing A-base expenditures, and Budget 2012 food safety funding. Affected members of the Food Safety Directors Committee (CFEZID, NML, LFZ, OPHP, CEPR) will be briefed and tasked with ensuring that their Directorates implement and comply with the expenditure tracking mechanism. |
c) Mechanism for tracking expenditures of A-base resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding. Include report on tracked food safety resource utilization in future strategic plans. |
Dec. 2012 | DG, CFEZID (lead) OCFO |
ADM, IDPC (lead) CFO |
Existing resources |
| 2. Address capacity issues in detecting and responding to food-borne outbreaks: | 2. Agree. | ||||||
| a) maintain Public Health Agency core capacity for daily operations in detecting and responding to outbreaks | a) Agree | Item (a): CFEZID to assess competencies required to ensure appropriate core outbreak response capacity (e.g., skills and knowledge required to respond to food-borne illness outbreaks) is in place and staff vacant positions (where applicable). CEPR will continue to work with PHAC program areas to ensure relevant public health events are monitored, and that information is synthesised and disseminated as appropriate. |
a)Planned staffing actions completed and core staff have completed appropriate orientation and training as per training plan. | March 2013 | DG, CFEZID (lead) DG, CEPR |
ADM, IDPC (lead) DG, CEPR |
Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding |
| b) develop a Public Health Agency-wide surge capacity plan to respond to large outbreaks with a particular focus on Public Health Agency and provincial/territorial epidemiological capacity | b) Agree. PHAC (CFEZID, OPHP, and CEPR) recognizes the need for a coordinated public health response capacity framework that includes surge capacity and capacity building, of PHAC Subject Matter Experts and P/T partners in the areas of outbreak response and management. | Item (b): CEPR, OPHP and CFEZID will develop an integrated public health capacity framework for event response which will include the development of capacity building initiatives to increase skills/expertise of public health resources for outbreak investigation and response. | b) Development of an operational framework for provision of coordinated public health surge capacity, and capacity building sessions delivered to PHAC and P/Ts to ensure operational readiness. CEPR will work with OPHP and program areas on the development of mechanisms, procedures and protocols for domestic and international deployments. |
March 2013 | DG, CFEZID (lead) DG, OPHP DG, CEPR |
ADM, IDPC (lead) DG, OPHP DG, CEPR |
Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding |
| c) continue to develop and implement capacity-building activities, including tools and methods, to assist provinces and territories in conducting their own laboratory and epidemiological investigations. | c) Agree. CFEZID (OMD) provides a leadership role in outbreak investigation best practices and tools and has initiated the development of an e-Outbreak Toolkit to respond to the need for standardized epidemiological tools to assist F/P/T partners. NML has an ongoing leadership role for the development and maintenance of national laboratory networks that are functioning with state-of-the-art laboratory methodologies and outbreak investigation tools. | Item (c): CFEZID, in collaboration with P/T partners, will develop an electronic Outbreak Toolkit. NML will continue to deliver PulseNet training and certification of labs with the P/T and federal partners (HC and CFIA). NML will continue to develop, implement and transfer innovative laboratory methods (including public health genomics) that will improve outbreak investigation capabilities amongst PHAC labs and our key partners (largely under the PulseNet Canada laboratory network. |
A functional Outbreak Toolkit available to FPT partners. Continued expansion of PulseNet Canada, a decentralized nationwide network of public health and federal food safety laboratories that actively generate, share and analyze laboratory information for the purposes of outbreak detection and response. |
March 2013 Training and R&D functions are ongoing. |
DGs, CFEZID and NML (co-lead) in consultation with DG, OPHP DGs, CFEZID and NML (co-lead) in consultation with DG, OPHP |
ADM, IDPC (lead) DG, OPHP |
Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding |
| 3. Continue with exercises of the Food-borne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol (FIORP) and the Food-borne Illness Emergency Response Plan (FI ERP). | Agree. CFEZID in collaboration with CEPR will build on the multi-lateral FIORP/FI ERP exercises, previously conducted, to ensure full preparedness of F/P/T partners in response to multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreaks. | 3. CFEZID, in collaboration with CEPR, will develop a FIORP and FI ERP focussed training and exercise plan for Health Portfolio and P/T partners. | 3. A formal approach to delivering FI ERP training in place including a federal-level table top exercise (TTX) focusing on the FIERP (food safety emergency at the federal level includes PHAC, CFIA, HC, AAFC and OGDs).
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March 2013 | DG, CFEZID (lead) in consultation with DG, CEPR | ADM, IDPC | Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding |
| A senior management level FIORP TTX with F/P/T partners. | March 2014 | ||||||
| As indicated in the FIORP, a formal review of the FIORP will be conducted every five years. CFEZID will initiate the review of the FIORP 2015. | Plan in place and team identified to conduct revisions of the FIORP 2015. | March 2014 | DG, CFEZID | ADM, IDPC | Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding | ||
| CFEZID will lead the development of plan to conduct formal exercises with the P/Ts of the FIORP 2015. | Plan for conducting formal FIORP 2015 exercises developed. | March 2014 | DG, CFEZID | ADM, IDPC | Existing resources and Budget 2012 food safety funding |
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