SEMPHN's support during state health emergencies

Maintaining access to primary health care is pivotal to emergency response and recovery efforts. Maximising capacity and ensuring integrated and coordinated support across primary care providers is essential for optimising health outcomes in local communities during emergencies.

SEMPHN - and PHNs in general - are positioned to coordinate a localised primary health care response, delivering care where and when it is needed, reducing pressure on the acute care system, and ensuring a coordinated and effective primary health care emergency response. Diligent planning and preparedness are key to realising this capability. The primary objectives of PHNs in emergency planning and preparedness include to:

• Coordinate: Support and coordinate the primary health care contribution to health emergency preparedness and coordination processes to identify primary health needs and build resilience.
• Build capacity: Assist local primary care providers in health emergency planning, response and recovery.
• Continuity of access: Make plans to support local primary care providers continuing to operate during emergencies e.g. by arranging alternative premises.

In an emergency, the Victorian Department of Health has a number of responsibilities as outlined in the State Emergency Management Plan. The Plan covers a wide range of events, including fire, flood, heatwaves, epidemic, wide-scale food poisoning, and train or plane accident. As emerging diseases and natural disasters cannot be predicted, primary care preparedness is a vital step for providers to consider and enact, to reduce vulnerability, minimise risk and increase business resilience. Being prepared for emergencies ensures that services and staff are ready to respond.

SEMPHN is committed to supporting primary care in planning preparedness and capacity building and will develop resources to support emergency management and local and regional emergency management, in particular to support Victorian Department of Health’s State Health Emergency Response Plan.

A large part of this commitment involves primary health professionals, general practices, and pharmacies, so that  local communities have the best primary health available following an emergency. SEMPHN consistently updates its list of volunteers willing to help out in an emergency.

Examples of responses:

• Taking on additional patients for a short period of time
• Staffing a field clinic where local infrastructure is not available
• Caring for people affected by an emergency either locally or, if required, further afield.
  

In the event of an emergency

In the event of an emergency, SEMPHN may send out an initial SMS message to participants asking for a response, so we know the potential capacity of the regional response.

Depending on the context of the emergency, the SMS will be sent across the catchment or within a localised area. The work is most likely to be volunteer-based.

Information gathered will be recorded in a secure, limited-access area of our database for the purposes of the emergency response only and you can opt out at any time by contacting us.