Exercise Paton was a NSW-wide simulation exercise, conducted on 30 November 2006, to test the ability of NSW emergency departments (EDs), multi-purpose services (MPSs), and public health units to respond to a suspected case of pandemic influenza during the early stage of a pandemic. The exercise was named after Dr Robert Paton, the NSW Director-General of Public Health during the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918–19.
This report describes the five objectives of Exercise Paton, how the exercise was conducted (including precursor and deployment activities), the performance of facilities against the five objectives, and the lessons learnt from it. In general, facilities performed well during Exercise Paton, with evidence that conducting the exercise has improved the confidence of facilities to be able to respond to a suspected case of pandemic influenza, should a pandemic occur.