INQ129

TitleLong
Major Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Readiness to Respond
INQAuthor
Peter Achterstraat, Auditor-General of New South Wales
Year
InquiryType
Audit
DisasterType
Biological
State
NSW
Status
Analysed
URL
INQ129

Recommendations for this Inquiry

INQ-ref REC-UID CODE SubCode SrcNUM Recommendation
INQ129 REC129-3620 A - Responsibility 35 - Business and Industry in relation to industry Recommendation 1

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and conclude agreements with private health providers specifying roles, and expectations in the case of an infectious disease pandemic.
INQ129 REC129-3631 E - Agency Organisation 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform Recommendation 12

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and continue to develop plans to respond to the surge in demand for diagnostic tests and for laboratory personnel.
INQ129 REC129-3630 E - Agency Organisation 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform Recommendation 11

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and continue to develop systems to bring all the information relevant to the surge in demand for health resources together in real time.
INQ129 REC129-3629 C - Response 8 - Communications and warnings Recommendation 10

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and continue to improve communication mechanisms with those, such as GPs, likely to be affected in major infectious disease outbreaks.
INQ129 REC129-3628 B - Preparedness 41 - Emergency Management exercises Recommendation 9

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and continue to develop and test the capability of its contact tracing system to deal with a public health emergency.
INQ129 REC129-3627 B - Preparedness 41 - Emergency Management exercises Recommendation 8

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and continue to develop and test its surveillance systems for early detection of infectious diseases.
INQ129 REC129-3626 B - Preparedness 39 - Disaster Risk Management Recommendation 7

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and consider a more structured and systematic approach to the planning and risk assessment of major infectious diseases to assist transparency and decision making.
INQ129 REC129-3625 A - Responsibility 38 - Agency/Department Reporting Recommendation 6

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and establish a performance management framework with targets and indicators to assess progress in preparing for infectious disease emergencies.
INQ129 REC129-3624 B - Preparedness 41 - Emergency Management exercises Recommendation 5

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and formally establish and oversight a comprehensive program of training, testing and evaluation of plans at the state, area and facility level.
INQ129 REC129-3623 B - Preparedness 41 - Emergency Management exercises Recommendation 4

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and apply the lessons learnt from Exercise Cumpston to further improve preparedness for major infectious disease emergencies.
INQ129 REC129-3622 B - Preparedness 39 - Disaster Risk Management Recommendation 3

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and consider building on influenza pandemic preparedness planning to develop broader contingency plans to address the emergence of other new, highly transmissible and/or severe infectious diseases.
INQ129 REC129-3621 E - Agency Organisation 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform Recommendation 2

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and establish a time table to finalise all emergency and contingency plans.
INQ129 REC129-3632 E - Agency Organisation 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform Recommendation 13

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and develop distinct surge capacity plans within each Area Health Service to manage emergency staffing needs, isolation facilities, intensive care units, assisted ventilation services, hospital beds and medical supplies.