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<p>I hold regular meetings with health Minister counterparts in the Devolved Administrations
to consider and review United Kingdom Ebola preparedness and response arrangements.</p><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK has robust, well-developed and well-tested public health
and National Health Service systems for preventing and managing infectious diseases
including any imported case of this type of disease, supported by a wide range of
experts and specialist units.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Screening arrangements
are already in place at the UK’s main ports of entry for people travelling from the
affected regions. A number of national and local multi-agency exercises have also
been conducted in recent months to test co-ordination, operational resilience and
communications systems across the UK in order to provide assurance of Ebola preparedness.
This included a recent exercise at official and Ministerial level involving all four
nations of the UK. The case of the British nurse who recently returned from Sierra
Leone demonstrated that the systems put in place across the UK to prepare for and
respond to a case of Ebola worked well.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department
– in close collaboration with the Devolved Administrations - will keep all preparedness
arrangements under review and continually look to improve or strengthen these arrangements,
as guided by expert clinical advice.</p><p> </p>
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