» Planning for pandemics and emergencies

Planning for pandemics and emergencies

Published: 22/07/2022 | 2 files | 2 links | Website

The Civil Defence Emergency Act (2002) and subsequent amendments requires all health and disability service providers to have a plan that can meet the expected delivery of essential primary, secondary and tertiary services in the event of a major health emergency occurring, whether that be local, regional or national.

The Ministry of Health ‘Operating Policy Framework’ requires each district health board to have a health emergency plan should an incident occur such as civil defence emergencies, large casualty-causing incidents, major weather events, pandemics or natural disasters.

The health emergency plan provides for both immediate, short duration events and extended emergencies, on both small and large scales. Primary care providers may be required to respond following:

the declaration of a national pandemic such as influenza
the declaration of a major outbreak such as measles
rapid discharge of patients to their home following a major incident
evacuation of homes following major flooding or toxic hazard spills
removing pressure from emergency departments for non-critical patients when the department reaches an overload situation
the declaration of a natural disaster in a region such as an earthquake, fire, volcanic eruption or a tsunami.

Developing a quality pandemic plan will ensure a general practice is well equipped to manage the next outbreak of pandemic influenza or other illnesses that can lead to a declaration of a pandemic, such as the novel coronavirus cluster of viral respiratory illness identified as SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) that emerged late in 2019. The plan will provide detail about how the practice will operate before, during and after a pandemic.

Use our templates in the resource section to help guide your planning process.

For more help and support contact your local development manager.

Business continuity planning workbook

Health emergency and business continuity plans are intended to:

protect the health needs of the population
protect the continuity of essential services and the health of staff
provide an integrated health response.

Your practice is a significant resource to your community and the regional health response.

The practice and the wider community are best protected when an emergency response is predictable, appropriate and resilient.

A well-prepared emergency and business continuity plan will allow you to have a range of responses in place to be activated when needed.

We recognise in the heat of an emergency having plans ready to use allows key staff more time to concentrate on their core business and take a planned approach to dealing with the event.

No one can plan fully for a crisis or for every eventuality. However, through good planning, you can develop the capability to expand and reprioritise services to cope with an emergency, whether a health emergency requires a national or regional approach, or a more local emergency affecting a smaller number of people.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This workbook (linked below) is modelled on the Pandemic Influenza Workbook produced in 2008 by the Australian Government. It incorporates material generously shared by the Nelson-Marlborough and Southland DHBs and aligns with the MoH National Health Emergency Plan 2008. It also meets the requirements for Cornerstone Accreditation. It was developed in conjunction with Rural Canterbury PHO who generously allowed John Coleman to use the PHO as a pilot.

We would like to acknowledge the alliance of South Island DHBs and Barry Simpson, South Island Primary Health Emergency Planning Coordinator, who has generously allowed us to use their document as a backbone for the Pinnacle Emergency and Business Continuity Planning workbook.

Pandemic plan - template

Developing a pandemic plan will ensure a general practice is well equipped to manage the next pandemic.

The plan will provide detail about how the practice will operate before, during and after a pandemic.

Download our template below to get started.

REVIEW PROCESS – JANUARY 2022

This plan remains current despite the dynamic changes seen with COVID-19 globally.

It is aligned with the current New Zealand pandemic plan which is still focussed on an influenza-like outbreak.

The success of the approach taken by New Zealand to date was published in an article in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand in late 2021 with recommendations for a new strategic approach which may well be represented in any future national pandemic planning documents. You can find a link to this article below.