DIT Diary
April 9, 2020
Dr Penny Burns
April 9, 2020
FEATURE
Healthcare organisations and stakeholders have been working together to decrease the impact of the 2019/2020 bushfires on the delivery of healthcare across NSW.
In the immediate aftermath of a bushfire, the State Government starts recovery operations.
Following the disastrous NYE bushfires, for example, the Ministry launched its emergency response via the Health Services Functional Area Coordinator (HSFAC) and a team from the State Health Emergency Operations Centre, which coordinated the whole of government response.
In addition, metro local health districts (LHDs) partnered with rural LHDs to manage hospital-based need and volunteers.
PHNs, which have been developing their disaster management pathways ahead of the 2019 bushfire season, enlisted local GPs to work in evacuation centres.
Meanwhile, at the height of the 2019-2020 bushfire season, health stakeholders quickly held meetings to discuss how best to organise the general practice and primary health care workforce support response.
The NSW Rural Doctors Network supported this effort by providing a centralised portal for expressions of interest from healthcare professionals willing to provide assistance and relief in communities.
The aim of this centralised portal was to ensure resource investment was targeted for maximum effectiveness with minimised duplication or interference to the localised responses.
Collectively, the newly formed NSW General Practice and Primary Care Workforce Emergency Response Partnership Group of about 20 health stakeholders, including AMA (NSW), acknowledged that the response should focus on the short term (January 2020), medium term (February to June 2020) and the long term (June 2020 onwards).
In addition to providing respite locums, the group agreed to aggregate ‘on the ground’ intel relating to primary health workforce and health service needs; collate and distribute useful resources; develop a ‘practice buddy’ program; encourage greater engagement of general practice and primary care in disaster management protocols; and coordinate industry debriefs and learnings.
This work is ongoing and will continue to develop over the following months.
In addition to this activity, the AMA (NSW) Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce it is making a $20,000 donation to the Medical Benevolent Fund, which is actively assisting medical practitioners impacted by the fires.
In this special feature, The NSW Doctor relates the experiences of doctors in different parts of NSW who have been affected personally and professionally by the bushfires of 2019/2020; as well as insights from one of NSW’s foremost disaster medicine specialists.